The People's Bank of China (PBOC) had meetings with various bitcoin exchanges this week including BTCC, OKCoin and Huobi; along with the meetings two press releases were issued; according to a translation from Coindesk, the document reads, "Bitcoin is not a currency and shouldn't be viewed as such. Those who invest in bitcoin should accordingly be aware of the risks it poses and protect their investment"; officials also reminded exchanges about complying with local state laws and other regulations. Source
Sizable fintech companies should face the same regulator scrutiny as banks according to China’s Central Bank; this follows what the PBOC said in August, that internet finance companies should be included in the Macro Prudential Assessment framework which was designed for banks; having banks and fintech companies operate under the same rules could streamline regulation. Source.
In this week’s WeiyangX Fintech Review reported by Crowdfund Insider they cover the rumors that the CBRC suspended online lending by private banks; private banks were only permitted to be in operation for the last 3 years and this news is reported to be done because of concerns over stability at the banks; a charity crowdfunding platform, Fenbeichou, was accused of fraud; the PBOC released new rules for mobile payment security including all QR code providers now need a permit. Source.
As CoinDesk reports Chinese publication Caixin said that the PBOC did not hold a meeting on shutting down mining activities; the meeting was supposed to be held on January 3rd and meant to focus on banning mining; the news means that the Chinese government is taking a more agnostic approach to bitcoin mining, not endorsing it but at the same time not banning it; more concrete news should surface in the coming months, for now firms like Bixin and ViaBTC will keep operating. Source.
The People’s Bank of China has recently launched a trial version of their digital currency which they hope will reduce...
Last week the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) released a report on the Initial Coin Offering (“ICO”) of the Decentralized...
On August 23 and 24, officials from the People's Bank of China and scholars from Peking University arrived in San Francisco and had in-depth discussions with delegates at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco as well as some fintech companies including Coinbase, Prosper, Sofi, Circle and Ripple; discussion topics focused on digital currency, regtech, lending and inclusive finance; Sun Guofeng, the head of the Research Institute of PBoC, and Yao Qian, the head of Digital Currency Research Institute of PBoC, attended the tour; a report on the status quo of US fintech market, regulatory environment and its implications on China will be written after this visit. Source (Chinese)
According to more than 80 patents viewed by the Financial Times the People’s Bank of China has made significant progress...
CoinDesk reports that Sheng Songcheng, counselor to the PBoC and an adjunct professor of economics and finance at the China Europe International Business School, explained that the Chinese government was right to move ahead with the ban; “In my opinion, these actions are largely aimed at averting risk and protecting investors’ interests while also being an opportunity to further regulate trading of virtual currencies,” as Songcheng writes in Caixin. Source.
This weeks WeiyangX Fintech Review on Crowdfund Insider covered the PBoC discussing key findings in their fintech sandbox program; Pinganfang.com found itself involved in a US crowdfunding fraud case; JD Finance and China UnionPay partnered on a blockchain based risk information sharing mechanism; Alibaba executive chairman Jack Ma announced that Ant Financial will delay their IPO; Tencent reached an agreement with China CITIC Bank to cooperate on cloud services, a financial big data platform and security. Source.