Mainland, Taiwan clinch financial regulatory mechanism

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-04-26 21:02

NANJING - The Chinese mainland and Taiwan clinched Sunday afternoon a cooperative financial regulatory mechanism to watch banking, securities, futures and insurance sectors across the Taiwan Strait.

The mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) President Chen Yunlin and the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung signed the agreement to cooperate with one another in terms of money regulation, accessibility of financial institutions to each other's market, and an arrangement for information exchange for financial regulatory purposes.

The two negotiating parties agreed to offer aid on implementing financial and monetary regulatory responsibilities, expanding wide cooperation in financial areas and jointly safeguarding financial stability.

The two sides assured each other to effectively supervise individual financial and monetary institutions from the opposite party.

The agreement asked regulatory bodies on banking, securities and futures, and insurance in both the Chinese mainland and Taiwan to prepare for detailed arrangements for the agreed-upon cooperation.

The two sides also agreed to encourage commercial banks from both sides to start business on money swaps, supply and reflux, as well as cooperation on cash anti-counterfeiting technology.

Arrangements for cross-Strait monetary clearing would also be built, the agreement said.

The ARATS and the SEF encouraged relative institutions to create conditions for increased cooperation to facilitate the accessibility of each other's market.

Meanwhile, the ARATS and the SEF ensured that the respective financial regulators would provide each other financial and monetary regulatory information and pivotal decisions that regulators deem might have consequences on the other's financial market.

The agreement, however, emphasized that the exchange of financial information would only be used for financial or monetary regulatory purposes in a mutually-assured confidential way.

The two sides agreed that financial and monetary cooperation could also be realized by personnel exchange, professional training, technological partnership and information exchange.

In addition to the financial cooperation agreement, the ARATS and the SEF also signed two documents on regular cross-Straits flights and mutual assistance in criminal matters on the same event.