China to fight money laundering, terrorist financing in non-financial sectors

BEIJING — China will extend its fight against money laundering and terrorist financing in non-financial sectors, the central bank has said.

"Money laundering and terrorist financing activities are gradually spreading to some non-financial sectors," the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in a statement Friday, noting risks in sectors like real estate intermediary services and jewelry sales.

The PBOC has already started monitoring and analysis in some of these sectors and will work with relevant government departments on anti-money laundering rules for non-financial industries.

Since China's anti-money laundering law became effective in 2007, supervision has improved, covering almost every financial sector, such as banking, securities, insurance, non-banking payment institutions and bank card clearing institutions.

According to a government guideline made public earlier this week, China will coordinate supervision to counter money laundering, terrorist financing and tax evasion.

By 2020, China should be able to effectively prevent and control money laundering, terrorist financing and tax evasion by improving laws and regulations and coordinating the work of different government departments, it said.

The PBOC also dismissed concerns over strengthened government supervision of abnormal cross-border capital flow, saying that the monitoring will not disrupt normal and legal use of cross-border capital.

The monitoring work will be carried out backstage and does not require further information from citizens and enterprises, said the central bank.