The People's Bank of China and the Ministry of Finance jointly promulgated today their regulations on "Book-entry T-bond Deals Management" in the way investors are to be formally provided with services for T-bond transactions at all times over the counter of the whole financial setup of the Commercial Bank.
Customarily, investors in China are having following channels for buying T-bonds. One is investors buying voucher T-bonds over the counter of the Commercial Bank. Two, individual and enterprise investors buy book-entry T-bonds from stock exchanges. Three, financial institutions like Commercial Bank buy book-entry T-bonds from bond markets between banks.
But to go in for T-bond deals at exchanges must have security accounts. Inter-bank bond markets are opened merely to financial institutions. To meet the demand of individual and enterprise investors for book-entry T-bonds, since the 4th quarter 2000, the People's Bank of China and the Ministry of Finance had set about organizing the work experimenting on book-entry T-bond over-counter deals.
Acting on the regulations promulgated on "Book-entry T-bond Deals Management", book-entry financial institutions conducting book-entry T-bond deals must be those run with expertise, qualified personnel, claiming two to three years of good standing marred by no violations of inter-bank bond market discipline.
(People's Daily April 4, 2002)
