China issues new rules to regulate cross-border financial data flow

China's central bank has issued a new guideline aimed at streamlining and standardizing cross-border data flows within the financial sector, enhancing efficiency for both domestic and foreign financial institutions.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) announced on Thursday that the guideline, developed in collaboration with five other regulatory bodies, clearly outlines the specific scenarios and types of financial data permitted to be transferred across borders.

In addition to clarifying permissible data categories, the guideline mandates that financial institutions adopt technical and management measures to ensure data security. The PBOC also noted that the framework will be refined over time based on feedback from its implementation, as part of ongoing efforts to further open up China’s financial sector.