Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA)

Banking Services

 

CEPA I
Sectors or sub-sectors	7. Financial services
	B	Banking and other financial services (excluding insurance and securities)
		a.	Acceptance of deposits and other repayable funds from the public
		b.	Lending of all types, including consumer credit, mortgage credit, factoring and financing of commercial transaction
		c.	Financial leasing
		d.	All payment and money transmission services, including credit, charge and debit cards, travellers cheques and bankers drafts (including import and export settlement)
		e.	Guarantees and commitments
		f.	Trading for own account or for account of customers: foreign exchange
Specific commitments	1.	For Hong Kong banks to set up branches or body corporates in the Mainland, the total asset requirement at the end of the year preceding application is not less than US$ 6 billion; for finance companies to set up body corporates, the total asset requirement at the end of the year preceding application is not less than US$ 6 billion.
	2.	There will be no requirement for setting up a representative office in the Mainland before a Hong Kong bank establishes a joint venture bank or joint venture finance company in the Mainland, or before a Hong Kong finance company establishes a joint venture finance company in the Mainland.
	3.	For Mainland branches of Hong Kong banks to apply to conduct RMB business:     (1) they should have been operating in the Mainland for more than 2 years;     (2) in conducting profitability assessment, the relevant authorities will base their assessment on the overall profitability position of all branches of the bank in the Mainland instead of the profitability position of its individual branches.

CEPA II
Sectors or sub-sectors	7. Financial services
	B.	Banking and other financial services (excluding insurance and securities)
		a.		Acceptance of deposits and other repayable funds from the public
		b.		Lending of all types, including consumer credit, mortgage credit, factoring and financing of commercial transaction
		c.		Financial leasing
		d.		All payment and money transmission services, including credit, charge and debit cards, travellers cheques and bankers drafts (including import and export settlement)
		e.		Guarantees and commitments
		f.		Trading for own account or for account of customers: foreign exchange
Specific commitments			To allow Mainland branches of Hong Kong banks to conduct insurance agents business after obtaining approval with effect from 1 November 2004.

CEPA III
Sectors or sub-sectors	7. Financial services
	B.	Banking and other financial services (excluding insurance and securities)
		a.		Acceptance of deposits and other repayable funds from the public
		b.		Lending of all types, including consumer credit, mortgage credit, factoring and financing of commercial transaction
		c.		Financial leasing
		d.		All payment and money transmission services, including credit, charge and debit cards, travellers cheques and bankers drafts (including import and export settlement)
		e.		Guarantees and commitments
		f.		Trading for own account or for account of customers: foreign exchange
Specific commitments			The level of operating funds required of Mainland branches of Hong Kong banks for offering renminbi and foreign currency businesses to local customers will be assessed on the basis of all Mainland branches of the bank concerned rather than each branch individually, and on the condition that the average level of operating funds of all Mainland branches of the bank concerned is over RMB500 million, the requirement on the level of operating fund of an individual branch should not be less than RMB300 million.

2007 Liberalization Measures
Sectors or sub-sectors	7. Financial services
	B.	Banking and other financial services (excluding insurance and securities)
		a.		Acceptance of deposits and other repayable funds from the public
		b.		Lending of all types, including consumer credit, mortgage credit, factoring and financing of commercial transaction
		c.		Financial leasing
		d.		All payment and money transmission services, including credit, charge and debit cards, travellers cheques and bankers drafts (including import and export settlement)
		e.		Guarantees and commitments
		f.		Trading for own account or for account of customers: foreign exchange
Specific commitments			For a Hong Kong bank to acquire shareholdings in a Mainland bank, the total asset requirement at the end of the year preceding the application is lowered from not less than US$10 billion to not less than US$6 billion.

2008 Liberalization Measures
Sectors or sub-sectors	7. Financial services
	B.	Banking and other financial services (excluding insurance and securities)
		a.		Acceptance of deposits and other repayable funds from the public
		b.		Lending of all types, including consumer credit, mortgage credit, factoring and financing of commercial transaction
		c.		Financial leasing
		d.		All payment and money transmission services, including credit, charge and debit cards, travellers cheques and bankers drafts (including import and export settlement)
		e.		Guarantees and commitments
		f.		Trading for own account or for account of customers: foreign exchange
Specific commitments			To allow any Mainland-incorporated banking institution established by a Hong Kong bank that meets the following criteria to locate its data centre in Hong Kong: 1
			1.	Incorporated in the Mainland on or before 30 June 2008;
			2.	At the time of its incorporation, its parent bank has already established a data centre in Hong Kong;
			3.	The data centre for the Mainland business (which should include core systems such as those for customer, accounting and product information) should operate independently;
			4.	Its board of directors and senior management should assume the ultimate oversight and accountability over the management of the data centre for the Mainland business; and
			5.	The data centre for the Mainland business should meet the relevant supervisory requirements and be subject to the approval of the relevant Mainland authorities.

¹ Subject to the conditions set out in the supervisory cooperation agreement, signed by the relevant Mainland and Hong Kong supervisory authorities, on the supervision of the data centres of Mainland-incorporated banking institutions established by Hong Kong banks that are located in Hong Kong.