Banking and trading company staff will receive training on new foreign exchange management rules from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) in Shanghai on August 2, the agency has announced.

SAFE made the announcement in a website notice on Tuesday.

SAFE, the Ministry of Commerce and China Customs jointly issued new regulations earlier this month on cross-border, trade-related capital flows in an effort to keep "hot money" (short-term speculative capital) from being transferred across the border under the guise of trade and commercial credits.

According to the regulations, which took effect on July 14, violators could face fines of up to 500,000 yuan ($73,000).

Banks that fail to verify the authenticity and consistency of foreign exchange receipts and expenditures with actual trade deals will face a minimum fine of 50,000 yuan.

Companies that fail to provide reports of trade deals to the customs office within 180 days after collecting foreign-exchange proceeds in cases involving at least $5 million could be fined up to 300,000 yuan.

Hu Xiaolian, deputy governor of the central bank and administrator of SAFE, in June noted the need to beef up supervision of cross-border capital flows and improve the balance of payments, thus ensuring national economic and financial security.

(Xinhua News Agency July 25, 2008)