Laws of the People's Republic of China

Circular of Shanghai Headquarters (No. 1 Financial Service Department) of the People's Bank of China on Transmitting the Circular on the Joint Debugging and Testing of the National Check Image Exchange System

Yin Zong Bu Fu [2006] No. 68

All policy banks, state-owned commercial banks, Shanghai (Municipality) branches of joint stock commercial banks, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, Bank of Shanghai, Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank, the business department of the headquarters of the Bank of Communications, and the accounting settlement offices (departments)of all Shanghai-based foreign-funded banks engaging in RMB business,

The Circular on the Joint Debugging and Testing of the National Check Image Exchange System (Yin Zhi Fu [2006] No. 199) is hereby transmitted to you, please abide hereby.

Attachment: Circular on the Joint Debugging and Testing of the National Check Image Exchange System (Yin Zhi Fu [2006] No. 199)

No.1Financial Service Department of Shanghai Headquarters of the People's Bank of China

November8, 2006 Attachment: Circular on the Joint Debugging and Testing of the National Check Image Exchange System

Yin Zhi Fu [2006] No. 199

No.1Financial Service Department of Shanghai Headquarters of the People's Bank of China, Tianjin and Guangzhou branches, business departments, Shijiazhuang Central Sub-branch, and the Payment and settlement Office of Shenzhen Central Sub-branch of the People's Bank of China, all policy banks, state-owned commercial banks, accounting settlement departments (receipt and payment centers) of joint stock commercial banks,

Under the Plan on the Implementation of Pilot Projects of the National Check Image Exchange System (Yin Ban Fa [2006] No. 131), the headquarters has decided to implement joint debugging and testing in the six provinces (municipalities) from November 15 to November 21,2006 in order to ensure the smooth running of national check image exchange system to be disseminated in Beijing, Shanghai,Tianjin, Hebei and Shenzhen (hereinafter referred to as the six provinces(municipalities)). The Plan on the Implementation of Pilot Projects of the National Check Image Exchange System (hereinafter referred to as the Plan) is hereby printed and issued to you and the relevant matters are announced as follows:

1.

Time of Joint Debugging and Testing

For the test of processing fee charges and disposal of year-end businesses, the time for system running is set to be from December 27, 2006 to January 2, 2007, of which December 29-30,2006 are legal holidays.

The Date Comparison Table

¡¡

2. Participants of Joint Debugging and Testing

The participants of joint debugging and testing consist of the clearing houses of all districts, cities and counties of the six provinces (municipalities), as well as all the direct participants of the payment system that handles the check clearing business. Each direct participant of the payment system shall arrange 5-10 subsidiary institutions to participate in the joint debugging and testing. Besides,2-3 participants shall be arranged to participate in the joint debugging and testing, which fail to participate in the payment system but participate in the check image system,.

3. The Business Scope of Joint Debugging and Testing

All functions of the national check image exchange system and the functions relevant to the acknowledgement of receipt of check images in the small-sum payment system shall be included in the joint debugging and testing. .

The business scope of national check image exchange system covers the functions of sending and receiving check images and general images, inquiries and replies, applications for stopping payment and answers, fee charges, cancellation of records in the register book, inquiry statistics, uploading of inter-city information about violations, etc.

The business scope of the small-sum payment system covers the sending and receiving of acknowledgements of receipt of check images, consolidation of acknowledge of receipt, etc.

4. The Environment of Joint Debugging and Testing

The environment of joint debugging and testing is classified into the real environment of national check image exchange system and the simulated environment of small-sum payment system.

A head center will be established for the real environment of national check image exchange system by connecting to the distant sub-centers of Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Shijiazhuang and Shenzhen.

The sub-centers of Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Shijiazhuang and Shenzhen shall be connected to the distant clearing houses under their respective jurisdictions.

Simulated sub-centers of Jinan and Xi'an will be set up under the head center for the purpose of testing all the functions of the image exchange system sufficiently. Simulated clearing houses of Jinan and Qingdao will be set up under the simulated sub-center of Jinan by sharing the front-end processor. Simulated Xi'an clearing house and simulated Xi'an industrial and commercial bank will be set up under the sub-center of Xi'an respectively by a single front-end processor and indirect connection.

A simulated NPC will be set up for the simulated environment of small-sum payment system by connecting to the simulated CCPC of Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Shijiazhuang and Shenzhen.

The simulated CCPC of Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Shijiazhuang and Shenzhen will be connected to the distant payment system participants of the joint debugging and testing under their respective jurisdictions.

Before November 10,the Clearing Head Center shall be in charge of establishing a head center for the real environment of national check image exchange system and the NPC and CCPC for the simulated environment of small-sum payment system . It shall finish the remote connection with the sub-centers and the participants of the payment system in the six provinces (municipalities) before November 14.

The Department of Science and Technology shall be in charge of completing the distribution of the application software and plug-in software for the check image exchange system before November 12.

The payment and settlement offices of the six provinces (municipalities) shall be responsible for the coordination between the offices of science and technology and the clearing centers to ensure the establishment of a testing environment of small-sum payment system by all the direct participants of payment system and their remote connection to a simulated CCPC before November 10, to ensure the establishment of sub-centers and the connection of clearing houses or commercial banks under their respective jurisdictions to the sub-centers before November 13 and to ensure the completion of distribution and installation of the plug-in software before November 13.

The payment and settlement offices of the sub-branches in the six provinces (municipalities) shall submit a report in written form on the preparation of the systems and environments under their respective jurisdictions to the Payment and Settlement Department (to the mail box of ChenXue through OA) before November 13.

As regards details in technology, please contact the Settlement Head Center of the People's Bank of China. Contact person for equipment: Zhang Xin 010-68401764, 13601058563; contact person for network debugging: Wang Xiangwen 010-68401928,13901373622; contact person for system integration: Ge Honghui 010-68401775, 1776, 13691294726; contact person of the application software and the equipment of front-end processor: Li Ningyu 010-68401775, 1776, 13439525330,Zhou Zhaotao 010-68401775, 1776, 13661226457.

5. Timetable for Joint Debugging and Testing

The image system shall run in accordance with the following timetable in the period of joint debugging and testing. The head center may make uniform adjustments as required.

Timetable for System Running

6. Software Version for Joint Debugging and Testing

All links of the national check image exchange system and the payment system shall use the post-revision software after the second round testing.

7. Basic Data of the Joint Debugging and Testing

(1) Data of bank codes. The payment and settlement offices in the six provinces (municipalities) shall be responsible for organizing the declaration of the data of bank codes by clearing houses and the banking financial institutions participating in the joint de bugging and testing, and shall submit the data of bank codes for joint debugging and testing in the excel format to the Department of Payment and Settlement (to the mail box of Zhou Pengbo through OA) before November 3. The data of bank codes shall be consistent with the data in the complete database of bank codes for the production environment of the payment system.

The Clearing Head Center shall be in charge of producing the basic data for this joint debugging and testing and shall, before November 10, accomplish the installation of the basic data of bank codes of the image exchange system and the payment system, and export the said data to the payment and settlement offices in the six provinces (municipalities).

The payment and settlement offices in the six provinces (municipalities) shall be responsible for the installation of the basic data of the bank codes of the image exchange system of their respective sub-centers, and shall, before November 12, export the said basic data to the clearinghouses under their respective jurisdictions, and shall distribute the basic data of bank codes of the payment system to the direct participants of the payment system before November 12.

(2) The digital certificates

The digital certificates for the joint debugging and testing shall be made by the Clearing Head Center uniformly and shall be distributed to the clearing centers of the six provinces (municipalities) before November 10. The clearing centers of six provinces (municipalities) shall be in charge of distributing the said certificates to the clearing houses under their respective jurisdiction and all banking financial institutions before November 12.

(3) Balance of clearing account

The balance of the clearing account of each commercial bank that directly participates in the joint debugging and testing shall be RMB 100 million yuan.

All direct participants shall set net debit level (earmark) of RMB 50 million yuan for the small payment system.

The Clearing Head Center shall be responsible for setting the balance of the clearing account in the simulated SAPS before November 12.

As regards other basic data, please see the Plan.

8. Making and Disposing Check Images for Joint Debugging and Testing

(1) Making check images

A banking financial institution or clearing house may use inter-city checks (under the invalidation seal) on its own initiative, make check images and form messages of check images subject to the format as required. It is not required about matching between the image information and the electronic clearing information.

(2) Disposing check images

A banking financial institution or clearing house shall dispose the business on the basis of the electronic clearing information after receiving a message issued by the image exchange system,.

9. Compilation of Joint Debugging and Testing Cases

When compiling the joint debugging and testing cases, it shall not only satisfy the requirements of the business types and business volume, but also cover all the functions of the national check image exchange system as well as the messages of acknowledgement of receipt of the check images in the small payment system.

The head clearing center shall be in charge of drawing up testing cases of the head center, simulated NPC and simulated CCPC.

The payment and settlement offices of the six provinces (municipalities) shall be responsible for compiling the testing cases for all participants of joint debugging and testing under their respective jurisdictions.

All banking institutions or clearing houses participating in the joint debugging and testing shall launch 5 national businesses and 5 regional businesses (including check businesses and general businesses) everyday at least. A banking financial institution that has the environment for the testing of small-sum payment system shall launch an acknowledgement of receipt of check image through the payment system after receiving any check image,.

The check image business shall be handled subject to the Measures for Dealing with the Affairs Relating to the National Check Image Exchange System (for Trial Implementation), Procedures for Dealing with the Affairs Relating to the National Check Image Exchange System (for Trial Implementation), Administrative Measures for the Running of the National Check Image Exchange System (for Trial Implementation), as well as the provisions on dealing with the businesses of the payment system by personnel of each entity participating in the joint debugging and testing.

Each entity participating in the joint debugging and testing shall print the simulated vouchers and checklist in accordance with relevant provisions, check the formats of the vouchers and checklist carefully, collect the number and amount of the businesses and check them against relevant checklist.

10. Organization of Joint Debugging and Testing

The joint debugging and testing is an important link before the dissemination and running of national check image exchange system, the effects and quality of which are directly related to the dissemination of the national check image exchange system all over the country. In view of lots of participant institutions, huge workload and wide range in the joint debugging and testing , the leading groups of the construction of the check image exchange system of the six provinces (municipalities) and their offices as well as all entities as participants shall attach great importance to it, shall strengthen the organization and management, closely communicate and collaborate with each other to ensure the smooth processing of this joint debugging and testing .

(1) Duty of each department. The Payment and Settlement Department of the People's Bank of China shall be responsible for the overall organization and management of the joint debugging and testing of the image exchange system, and drawing up a plan on the joint debugging and testing of the national check image exchange system.

The Department of Science and Technology shall be in charge of coordination and management of the technical work of joint debugging and testing, and it shall instruct relevant departments to participate in the system integration, software installation and technical support of network debugging of the participants of joint debugging and testing.

The Clearing Head Center shall responsible for the preparation of environment, network connection and technical support of the joint debugging and testing, it shall coordinate clearing sub-centers to handle the installation of the basic data of bank codes, and the operations of the head center and the simulated NPC, and it requires one operator in each of the clearing sub-centers in the six provinces (municipalities) to go to Beijing to operate the CCPC on November 14. Contact person of the Clearing Head Center: Zhang Xin, Tel.: 010-68401764 13601058563

The payment offices of the six provinces (municipalities) shall be responsible for organizing and coordinating the participants of joint debugging and testing under their respective jurisdiction.

(2) Report of joint debugging and testing. In case of any abnormity of the system or any matter inconsistent with the operation needs arising during the testing, all participants shall timely record the problems, and then carefully fill in the Record Form of Joint Debugging and Testing Problems (See Attachment 2 for the format), and submit it to relevant payment and settlement offices of the six provinces(municipalities) at 16¡Ã00 of the current day.

The payment and settlement offices of the six provinces (municipalities)shall, in a daily manner, study the problems arising from the joint debugging and testing of the current day jointly with the operators and technicians of the relevant departments and put forward suggestions of solution which shall be submitted to the Payment and Settlement Department before 13¡Ã00 of the following day. And then they shall submit a summary report of the joint debugging and testing to the Payment and Settlement Department (to the mail box of Chen Xue through OA).

In case of any serious problem that affects the normal running of the system during the joint debugging and testing, the payment and settlement offices of the six provinces (municipalities) shall report it to the People's Bank of China immediately.

(3) Strengthening the operations and technical support. The Payment and Settlement Department, the Department of Science and Technology, and the Clearing Head Center will assign special personnel to take charge of the operations and technical support during joint debugging and testing, and will designate personnel to the six provinces (municipalities) to direct and support the joint debugging and testing on the spot. The name list of the said personnel will be publicized separately.
All participants in the joint debugging and testing of the check image system under your jurisdiction shall be rapidly notified about the contents as given above.

All commercial banks may download the electronic documents from the website as follows by themselves: www. 126. com username: zfxtc password:123456

Contact person: Zeng Yilan Tel: 010-68401775 1776 13873841951

Attachments:

1. Plan on the Joint Debugging and Testing of National Check Image Exchange System (omitted)

2. Record Form of Joint Debugging and Testing Problems (omitted)

Payment and Settlement Department of the People's Bank of China

October31, 2006