China's central bank is going to introduce an Internet-based interest rate monitoring system later this month in east China's Shanghai Municipality, Zhejiang and Fujian provinces to enable banking institutions to improve their interest rate pricing mechanisms and risk management skills.

A spokesperson for the Shanghai branch of the People's Bank of China (PBC), China's central bank, said the branch ordered banking institutions at prefecture and city levels dealing in Chinese and overseas currencies to report the interest rates of various financial products to the branch.

The products include loans, interbank lending and contracted deposits.

The spokesperson said the system it developed in cooperation with China's Interbank Borrowing Center was capable of processing the data it gathered.

The information would be open to banking institutions for reference on the Internet at the address www.Chinamoney.com.cn, and the branch would also monitor it.

(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2003)