Commencement of Operation of Guangdong / Hong Kong Two-way Joint Clearing Facility for HK Dollar Cheques

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today (Thursday) the new two-way Joint Clearing Facility established with the Guangzhou Branch of the People's Bank of China (PBoC) will commence operation on 22 June 2002.

Under the new clearing arrangement, the time required for clearing Hong Kong dollar cheques drawn on banks in Guangdong, including Shenzhen, and presented in Hong Kong will be reduced to two working days. The Joint Clearing Facility will be implemented by Hong Kong Interbank Clearing Limited, the Guangzhou Electronic Banking Settlement Centre and the Shenzhen Financial Electronics Settlement Centre. The facility will streamline the collection and delivery of cheques to the clearing operators in Guangzhou and Shenzhen for processing.

Joint cheque clearing in the other direction (Hong Kong dollar cheques drawn on banks in Hong Kong and presented in Guangdong) has already been in place since 1998 and has been functioning very well, covering all the major cities in Guangdong. In the past 12 months (June 2001 to May 2002), more than 135,000 cheques have been processed, with a total value of HK$13.2 billion.

"This new service is another example of fruitful co-operation between the PBoC and the HKMA. Improvements such as this to the basic payments infrastructure between Hong Kong and Guangdong raise efficiency and pave the way for further development of financial and economic links with Guangdong and other parts of the Mainland," said Mr Joseph Yam, Chief Executive, Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

For further enquiries, please contact:

Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480 or
Sylvia Yip, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
6 June 2002