Ｉｍｐｒｏｖｉｎｇ Ｆｉｎａｎｃｉａｌ Ｓｅｒｖｉｃｅｓ ｏｆ Ｃｈｉｎａ’ｓ Ｃｅｎｔｒａｌ Ｂａｎｋ

In August 29， Deputy Governorof People's Bank of China， Mr.Su Ning， held a press conferenceat State Council Information Office， andanswered questions from media. The pressconference mainly focused on the progressthe central bank has made in improvingfinancial services， which raised a lot ofconcern from public. At the conference，Mr. Su Ning fully illustrated that China hasachieved great progress in the recent years，and would perform better in future.

\"Provision of financial services is animportant function of the People's Bankof China (PBC). Compared with othercommercial financial organizations， cen-tral bank has its own characteristics.\" Mr.Su Ning said to the media， \"Its servicesare appointed by the related laws， such ascurrency issue and national treasury man-agement. The services are non-profit andserves for public. More importantly， cen-tral bank should guide and supervise thefinancial services，meanwhile create aproper fundamentalenvironment for theimproving of finan-cial services.\"

In recent years，the PBC has fullyimplemented the ap-proach of scientificdevelopment， andproactively pressedahead with the accessibility of finan-cial statistics. PBChas made much efforts in modernization ofpayment and settlement system， standard-ization of the management of currency，gold and silver， scientific management ofthe state treasury， publicity of the creditinformation system， and the legal frame-work of anti-money laundering. In all thoseprocesses， PBC has played a circle role incomprehensively improving financial ser-vices and enhancing the sound economicand financial development.What has been achieved?

According to Mr. Su Ning， the progresscould be seen from the following aspects.

Firstly， financial statistics is playing arole in serving economic development. ThePBC has enhanced the fundamentals ofstatistics and put in place a statistics mech-anism in line with the breakdown of the na-tional economy and the breakdown of loanreceivers. In order to reflect the status quoof the economic and financial operations;PBC has planned and created a nationwidecentralized financial statistics informationsystem to improve the statistics process andachieve data integration and sharing.

In the coming days， financial newsrelease system will be upgraded throughmulti-media， such as Xinhua News Agen-cy， Financial News， China Finance and thePBC website， so as to provide adequate，reliable， well-grounded and valuable policyrecommendations for the state's economicand financial decision-making.

Secondly， China National AdvancedPayment System (CNAPS)， with high-valuepayment system (HVPS) and bulk electronicpayment system (BEPS) as the core， hasbeen successfully established.

HVPS is internationally advanced in termsof function and efficiency. It enables instantclearing across the banks nationwide and real-time inter-bank bond transactions. In the firsthalf of 2007， HVPS processed 650，000 inter-bank transactions with a value of RMB 1.6 tril-lion yuan.

BEPS processes services closely relate tothe general public such as salary distribution，billing of water， electricity， gas and other utili-ties， It realizes nationwide deposit and cashwithdrawal， on-line or on-telephone inter-bankpayment. As a result， BEPS facilitates the pro-duction and livelihood of the public. Bankcardscan be used nationwide in different banks'ATM. RMB cards are accepted and issuedoverseas in larger volume.

As of end 2006， 1.2 billion bankcards hadbeen issued， with a total transaction volume ofRMB 64 trillion yuan; 26 countries and regionshad accepted Uion-pay RMB cards. Notes areused and circulated in wider range. Checkscan be used nationwide through check imageexchange system. Corporate cards are usable infive provinces and municipalities. A nationwideonline identification check system has been cre-ated.

Breakthrough has been made in real-nameregistration for bank accounts too. The PBChas made efforts to improve rural financialinfrastructure and to implement payment andsettlement agency system in rural credit co-operatives， which has facilitated payment andsetdement in rural areas. So far， 12，000 ruralcredit cooperatives have been connected toCNAPS. Migrant workers' cards are launchedin 13 biggest migrant-workers-originatingprovinces and municipalities. All together 1.59million transactions on migrant workers' cardshave been completed， totaling RMB 785 mil-lion yuan.

Thirdly， currency issuance and manage-ment is further strengthened. Currency issuanceand management is a basic function of the cen-tral bank. The PBC issued the fifth set of RMBin 2005 and conducted throe pilot programs toimprove the cleanness of RMB notes in circulation. PBC will further promote cross-borderRMB flows in a bid to expedite cross-bordertrade with neighboring countries. It also makesmore endeavors to conduct anti-counterfeitingcampaigns and technical training， with thefocus laid upon fighting against fake money inrural areas and cracking down on counterfeit-ing activities.

Furthermore， the state treasury system hasbeen continuously improved. State treasury ser-vices are rolated to the safe and efficient func-tioning of public fiscal fund in society. PBCorganized pilot programs for centralized statetreasury income and payment and promotedsuch reforms as collection of extra-budgetaryfund， categorization of government income andexpenditure， cash management， redemption ofsavings T-bond.

Moreover， credit information system isgradually being improved. As of the end ofJune 2007， enterprises' credit information da-tabase had created credit references for 12.2million enterprises， out of which 5.1 millionenterprises borrowed from banks. While indi-viduals' credit info database had croated creditreferonces for 570 million natural persons， thelargest crodit information database for individu-als in the world so far.

Meanwhile， great acceleration has alsobeen made in anti-money laundering and 1Tinfrastructure building of financial services.What most pleased every audience was thatpreliminary results had been achieved in thecomprehensive financial service innovationpilot project in Hunan Province， in the middlepart of China.What's for future?

At the next phase， the focus of central bankfinancial service is as follows. A lot of effortswill be made in centralizing financial statisticalinformation to strengthen service function ofthe financial statistics. The payment and settle-ment system building will be accelerated toprovide a good settlement environment for theupcoming Olympic Game， continue to improvepersonal payment and settlement service andbankcard services tailored fur rural migrantfarmers. The currency issue and managementwork will be further strengthened to ensurecash supply in the high season， and improve thelong-term mechanism of anti-money forgery.

The drafting of Administrative Rules onCollection of Loan Information will be acceler-ated to expand the coverage of information col-lection beyond the banking sector. The smalland medium-sized enterprise credit system andrural credit system building will proceed faster.The anti-money laundering regulation overbanking， securities， and insurance sectors willbe promoted and international anti-money laun-dering cooperation will be deepened.

The results of comprehensive financial ser-vice innovation pilot project in Hunan Provincewill be consolidated to accumulate experiencefor the nationwide introduction of the project atthe next stage.