The Chinese central bank’s regional office for Guangdong province has announced the cancellation of licensing for corporate bank accounts effective from 28 April.
The Guangzhou branch of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) announced on 26 April that corporate bank account licensing would be “comprehensively cancelled” throughout all of Guangdong province.
According to the announcement the opening, amendment and cancellation of basic deposit accounts and provisional deposit accounts at Guangdong province banks by both legal person and non-legal person enterprises will shift from an approval system to a filing system.
PBOC will no longer approve or issue licenses for the opening of enterprise accounts in the province, and the licenses will no longer serve as evidentiary documents for the handling of other matters by enterprises.
When enterprises apply to open basic or provisional deposit accounts, the relevant bank will be permitted to handle account opening procedures following the completion of approvals in accordance with regulations.
PBOC said that it would strengthen enterprise bank account management in tandem with the cancellation of enterprise bank account licensing.
This will include requiring banks to check the willingness of the legal representatives or executives of enterprises to open enterprise accounts and mandating their cooperation at the time that basic accounts are open, in order to prevent fraudulent account opening and protect the lawful rights and interests of enterprises.
