China to further stipulate financial information services

BEIJING - The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) on Wednesday unveiled a set of stipulations on financial information services, which will go into effect on Feb 1 next year.

The stipulations define the services as those that provide users engaged in financial activities with information or financial data that might affect the financial market.

Providers should not produce, copy, release or spread any information that contains fake financial information, distorts the country's financial and monetary policies or instigates others to partake in financial frauds or economic crimes.

Information that makes up incidents or news in the financial market, promotes financial products and services forbidden by authorities or contains other content that goes against laws and regulations will also be prohibited.

Other stipulations state that financial information providers should have a management staff that matches the scale of their services and set up service standards in terms of examining the information and protecting personal information and intellectual property.

Information providers that violate the stipulations will be punished. Punishments include being publicly criticized, being blacklisted as discredited personnel, receiving administrative penalties or being accountable for criminal activities.

According to the CAC, in recent years, some financial information service agencies have been hyping the risks in the financial market, publishing sensitive market information and distorting the country's policies on financial supervision, which impacted the economic and financial stability and led to the release of the stipulations.