During a press conference held by the Hainan branch of the People’s Bank of China on October 24, it was revealed that the multi-functional free trade accounts (referred to as “EF accounts”) in Hainan’s Free Trade Port have experienced significant activity since their launch on May 6. By September 30, the total transactions—converted to Chinese yuan—amounted to 34.727 billion yuan, with an average daily transaction exceeding 200 million yuan.
From the start of their operation until the end of September, Hainan opened 86 main EF accounts, facilitating total transactions worth 34.727 billion yuan. This includes 26.391 billion yuan in first-line cross-border transactions and 8.336 billion yuan in second-line transactions. The range of services catered to by the EF accounts spans various areas including cross-border trade settlement, spot and forward foreign exchange trading, foreign currency exchange, loans, trade financing, overseas lending, foreign debt, and foreign investment.
According to data released by Hainan Province’s Statistical Bureau on October 23, the total import and export volume for Hainan in the first three quarters of this year was 205.95 billion yuan, marking a year-over-year increase of 20.2%, and an acceleration of 6.4 percentage points compared to the first half of the year. Specifically, imports totaled 126.59 billion yuan, up by 9%, while exports surged to 79.36 billion yuan, reflecting a robust increase of 43.7%.
The rapid growth in import and export activities has significantly fueled the rise in cross-border transactions. Hu Zhenhua, director of the Survey and Statistics Department of the Hainan branch of the People’s Bank of China, noted that in the first nine months of this year, there was a remarkable increase in cross-border transactions, with FT accounts seeing a substantial rise and EF accounts reaching an initial scale of operations.
The data revealed that Hainan’s cross-border transactions totaled 79.6 billion U.S. dollars, up 24.9% year-on-year. This included cross-border transactions in yuan amounting to 328.6 billion yuan, which represented a 49.8% increase and accounted for 58.2% of the total. From January to September, FT account transactions reached 976.3 billion yuan, a 110% year-on-year increase, while by the end of September, EF accounts handled transactions worth 34.7 billion yuan.
Additionally, Wu Yihu, deputy director of the Macro-Prudential and Financial Market Management Department of the People’s Bank of China, stated that the bank plans to continue supporting the implementation of EF accounts for more qualifying banks based on a “mature one, go live one” principle. They will also enhance service offerings and product innovations within compliance to better meet the cross-border trade and investment needs of qualified entities in the Free Trade Port.
