PBOC to shift some functions to Shanghai
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-31 14:23

China's central bank aims to expand its branch in Shanghai by shifting some functions, such as anti-money laundering operations, to the country's financial hub, a central bank official said on Monday.

The plan was still in the initial phase, a second People's Bank of China official said, declining to elaborate on a timetable or further details.

Headquaters of the People's Bank of China in Beijing. [newsphoto]

If successful, it will raise the independence of the bank's regional offices after nine regional branches, including those in Shanghai and Guangzhou in southern China, were set up in 1998.

However, the bank's key monetary policy department will stay in Beijing, which will remain the centre for policy decision-making, the first official said.

"The Shanghai branch will offer supplementary central bank services to the entire nation," he said.

Shanghai now hosts China's only foreign exchange market, the interbank lending and debt markets and the main stock exchange, and is home to a host of Sino-foreign joint ventures, including one with General Motors.

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