Regulator to continue crackdown on "hot money" flow

Beijing, Apr 24 (Xinhua-ANI): China will step up efforts to crack down on "abnormal" cross-border capital flow this year in a bid to protect the country's economic and financial security, the country's top foreign exchange regulator announced Tuesday.

Reiterating its long-standing policy, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said illegal flows of foreign exchange funds have grown more complicated and clandestine as China's international payments have increased.

More than 15,000 cases of foreign exchange irregularities were investigated from 2007 to 2011, with 1.27 billion yuan (201.6 million U.S. dollars) in illegal funds confiscated, according to a statement posted on the SAFE's website.

During the five years, foreign exchange regulatory departments across the country have also clamped down on 65 illegal private banks, 26 cases of Internet-based speculation in foreign exchange and 119 cases of illegal foreign exchange trading involving more than 100 billion yuan in capital.

Over 1,000 criminal suspects were arrested during foreign exchange law enforcement activities during the past five years, according to the SAFE.

However, the foreign exchange regulator did not give an exact amount of speculative arbitrage capital, or "hot money," flowing into the country every year.

Capital flows into and out of China for purposes other than payments related to exports and imports are strictly controlled by the SAFE, which managed 3.31 trillion U.S. dollars of foreign exchange reserves by the end of March this year. (Xinhua-ANI)