Beijing is investigating fraudulent declarations of domestic assets made to obtain overseas loans, regulators said on Wednesday, as part of a broader crackdown on capital outflows.
But the forex regulator took pains to reassure that the common practice of pledging domestic assets against loans issued by Chinese banks’ overseas branches for trade or investment — known in Chinese as neibao waidai — was still legal as long as borrowers complied with regulations.
The State Administration of Foreign Exchange said on Wednesday it would “guide financial institutions to step up compliance management and risk control of neibao waidai and to severely crack down on fake or malicious collateral”. It denied it was targeting any companies.