China to expand cash-pooling program for multinationals

BEIJING - China will expand the coverage of a pilot cash-pooling service that integrates domestic and foreign currency management for multinational companies, the country's monetary authorities said on Thursday.

The program is currently being piloted in 10 localities and will be expanded to various regions, including Tianjin, Hebei, Anhui, Fujian, Shandong, Hunan, Sichuan, Yunnan and Xinjiang, according to the People's Bank of China (PBOC) and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

The move aims to improve the efficiency of cross-border fund operations and facilitate cross-border investment and financing for large multinationals to a greater extent, the PBOC said in a statement.

Policies that will be piloted in these additional regions include those that allow multinationals to use their domestic master accounts in China to handle centralized receipts and payments in domestic and foreign currencies for overseas subsidiaries, and those that streamline yuan-denominated cross-border receipts and payments for multinationals.

The cash-pooling service was first launched in Beijing and the southern economic powerhouse of Shenzhen in 2021. It was expanded to include Shanghai, Guangdong, Shaanxi and other regions in 2022, and optimized further in 2024.