Central Bank of the Republic of China details Cross-border Payment Link with Hong Kong enabling real-time RMB and HKD remittances

The Central Bank of the Republic of China published a Q&A on the Cross-border Payment Link, an arrangement that connects mainland China’s fast payment system with other monetary authorities’ fast payment systems, starting with an interconnection between the mainland’s Online Payment Interbank Clearing System and Hong Kong’s Faster Payment System (FPS). The initiative is positioned as a retail cross-border payments channel intended to provide faster, more convenient and safer payments between mainland and Hong Kong residents. The linkage supports cross-border remittances in renminbi and Hong Kong dollars initiated digitally through participating institutions’ mobile and online banking channels, using identifiers such as mobile phone numbers and bank accounts. It allows “convenience remittances” within a specified amount under current account transactions to be credited in real time, and enables additional bidirectional use cases including education and medical fee payments and the payment of salaries and allowances. Mainland participating institutions are required to comply with cross-border settlement management rules and anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing and counter-proliferation financing obligations, including establishing risk monitoring mechanisms and strengthening suspicious transaction monitoring. Initial mainland participants are Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications and China Merchants Bank. Hong Kong participants are Bank of China (Hong Kong), Bank of East Asia, China Construction Bank (Asia), Hang Seng Bank, HSBC and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia), with participation to be expanded gradually.