File Photo: Xinhua

China's top forex regulator, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), said that it has noticed claims made by US billionaire investor Mark Mobius that he cannot get his money out of the country. But SAFE said there has been no change in China's policy for cross-border remittance of funds, online news portal cls.cn reported on Monday.

This particular case relates to "the basic process and internal control requirements of the bank," according to the report on cls.cn. "SAFE will continue to promote high-level opening-up to the outside world, and at the same time guide and urge commercial banks to optimize cross-border financial services and improve service levels," the report said.

The report came after Mobius had in an interview with US-based news channel FOX Business on Thursday. "I have an account with HSBC in Shanghai. I can't take my money out," he said, adding that "they don't say: No, you can't get your money out. But they say: give us all the records from 20 years of how you made this money."

According to the report on cls.cn, SAFE said "there has been no change in the policy for cross-border remittance of funds in our country."

In a separate report published on cls.cn on Monday, HSBC China said that it has not received any request from the regulatory authorities to limit the remittance of funds.

"We cannot comment on the situation of our customers, but we need to clarify that our bank has not received any request from the Chinese regulators to limit the remittance of funds, nor has it been informed of any recent policy changes by the Chinese government on the remittance of cross-border funds," a spokesperson for HSBC China was quoted by the report on cls.cn as saying.

The spokesperson added that similar to the situation in other countries, commercial banking business needs to follow certain procedures and internal control requirements.

Global Times