For years, wealthy Chinese have been transferring billions worth of their money overseas, snapping up pricey real estate in markets including New York, Sydney and Vancouver despite their country's currency restrictions.Now, one way they could be doing it is clearer. Last week, when China Central Television levelled money-laundering allegations against Bank of China Ltd saying the bank helped customers transfer unlimited amounts of yuan abroad through a product called Youhuitong, which means "superior foreign-exchange channel."
The state-run broadcaster's report prompted the revelation of a previously unannounced government programme that enables individuals to transfer their yuan and convert it into dollars or other currencies overseas.
Offered by some banks in the southern province of Guangdong, across the border from Hong Kong, the trial programme was introduced in 2011 for overseas property purchases and emigration and doesn't constitute money laundering, Bank of China said in a July 9 statement. The transfers were allowed by regulators and reported to them, the bank said.
China's foreign-exchange rules cap the maximum amount of yuan that individuals are allowed to convert at US$50,000 each year and ban them from transferring the currency abroad directly.
Bloomberg