PBOC mulls allowing opening of accounts online

China will allow banks to open accounts online in an effort to conform to the development trend of Internet finance and build the foundation for Internet banking business.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the nation's central bank, is soliciting opinions about the guidelines for opening renminbi-denominated bank accounts remotely. It asked the banks to use relevant technologies such as face recognition and long-distance banking to achieve the same results as real-name authentication.

The banks are also required to provide an external assessment report issued by the authorities to prove that they can effectively recognize the real identity of clients via the technologies and also prove that the clients are opening accounts of their own accord rather than under stress.

Under the current regulations, clients have to go to bank counters to open accounts. By allowing banks to open accounts online, the central bank may build a brand new online financial system and create a favorable environment for pilot private banks like WeBank and MYbank, market insiders said.