作者：金杜律师事务所 陈运 顾婕妤 汪镕
On December 25, 2015, People's Bank of China ("PBOC") promulgated the Circular on Improving Individual Bank Account Services and Strengthening Account Management (the “New Individual Bank Account Circular”). In short, the New Individual Bank Account Circular introduces new categories of individual RMB bank accounts with different functions and account opening requirements and requires that banks impose classified management based on the real name system with respect to different categories of individual bank accounts. In this regulatory alert, we will take a preliminary look at some of the key features and implications of the New Individual Bank Account Circular.
2015年12月25日，中国人民银行（简称“人行”）发布了《关于改进个人银行账户服务加强账户管理的通知》（简称“个人银行账户新规”）。简单而言，个人银行账户新规引入了新的个人人民币银行账户种类，各类别个人银行账户具有不同的功能和开户要求，要求银行应当以实名制为核心对各类个人银行账户进行分类管理。我们将在本文中简要解读个人银行账户新规的一些主要内容及其影响。
Key Features丨主要内容
Three categories of individual bank accounts
三大类个人银行账户
Biometric technologies
生物特征识别技术
The New Individual Bank Account Circular provides that banks shall use government data base, banks’ own data base, commercial data base, other banks’ data base, etc. to cross check the identities of the account opening applicants. In addition, those banks having relevant capabilities may explore the application of biometric recognition technology or other safe and effective technology as the supplemental method for customer identification.
个人银行账户新规规定，银行可利用政府部门数据库、本银行数据库、商业化数据库、其他银行账户信息等，对开户申请人身份信息进行多重交叉验证。另外，有条件的银行可探索将生物特征识别技术和其他安全有效的技术手段作为核验开户申请人身份信息的辅助手段。
Real name system
实名制
The New Individual Bank Account Circular reiterates that banks must always check the ID information of the account opening applicant, the validity of the ID document, the consistency of the account opening applicant with the ID and the intention of the account opening applicant, and shall under no circumstances open bank accounts with anonymous names or disguised names.
个人银行账户新规重申银行应核验开户申请人身份信息、身份证件的有效性、开户申请人与身份证件的一致性和开户意愿，不得开立匿名或假名银行账户。
Deadline for implementation
落地时间
The New Individual Bank Account Circular requires that banks identify and mark the three categories of individual bank accounts and make a filing with the RMB settlement system before April 1, 2016.
个人银行账户新规要求，银行应于2016年4月1日前在系统中实现对三类个人银行账户的有效区分、标识，并按规定向人民币银行结算账户管理系统报备。
Assessment of Implications丨影响评估
The ability of opening an account online or that of remote account opening is at the heart of the direct banking which is supposed to have no physical premises and counters. The New Individual Bank Account Circular represents a giant step of the PRC regulatory development on this issue for the first time by expressly permitting individual account opening through E-channels and using biometric technology as the supplemental method for customer identification.
是否可以线上开户或远程开户是没有物理网点和柜面的直销银行面临的核心问题之一。从这一点而言，个人银行账户新规首次明确允许通过电子渠道开立个人银行账户以及允许采用生物识别技术作为客户身份验证的辅助手段，表明了在这一问题上中国监管所迈出的巨大的一步。
However, we believe this is just the first step of a long journey towards online-only banks as there are many issues presented by this New Individual Bank Account Circular that will need to be addressed for online-only banks. For example, it is required that bank employees conduct the customer identification check for the opening of Type I Bank Account, which means that online-only banks can only open Type II Bank Account and Type III Bank Account offering limited service types with restricted payment or balance amount. Another example is, the New Individual Bank Account Circular requires that Type II Bank Account to be opened through E-channels must be linked to a Type I Bank Account of the same customer for the purpose of customer identification and such linkage will depend on the willingness of the account bank of such Type I Bank Account to confirm the identity either through PBOC’s Bulk Electronic Payment System or through other means, without which, Type II Bank Account may not be able to be opened electronically. In connection with this, we also note that the New Individual Bank Account Circular provides for a seven-day response period which will inevitably affect the customer’s user experience in account opening. Further, existing regulations require face-to-face risk management before WMP could be sold for the first time. Whether such requirement could be waived or compromised for online-only banks is yet to be seen.
但是我们认为这可能仅仅是向纯线上银行征途所迈出的第一步。个人银行账户新规也提出了一些需要拿出应对方案的问题。比如，开立I类银行账户的，必须现场检查身份信息，这意味着纯线上银行只能开立II类和III类银行账户，而这些账户的服务种类有限，且有付款金额或余额的限制。再如，对于用电子渠道开立II类银行账户的，个人银行账户新规要求必须与客户的同名的I类银行账户进行绑定以供身份核验，该等核验将依赖于他行同意开放人行小额批量支付系统的核验功能或者双方协议的其他方式进行核验，否则II类银行账户将无法通过电子渠道开立。与此有关，我们也注意到个人银行账户新规规定了七天的核验信息反馈期，这无疑将会影响到客户的用户体验。另外，现有的法规要求首次购买银行理财产品时必须在柜台办理风险测评，对于纯上线银行而言，该项规定是否可以给予豁免和突破，也还有待观察。
