On October 29, 2025, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) announced a new package of measures aimed at further facilitating cross-border trade receipts and payments, enhancing foreign exchange services, and supporting foreign trade development. The announcement was made during the 2025 Financial Street Forum in Beijing.

The measures focus on three key areas with nine specific provisions:

1. Expanding Trade Facilitation

• The high-standard cross-border trade opening pilot program, initially covering Beijing and 10 other regions, will be extended to additional areas aligned with national strategic development priorities.

• Netting settlements for loans and related service fees are broadened, reducing both the frequency and cost of cross-border remittances.

• For high-quality enterprises participating in multinational cash-pooling, SAFE has simplified settlement procedures for centralized receipts and payments.

• Banks may offer value-added services to foreign-exposed employees of these enterprises, facilitating payroll-related foreign exchange transactions.

2. Supporting New Trade Models

• Banks are encouraged to recognize the creditworthiness of compliant cross-border e-commerce platforms and foreign trade service companies, bringing more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) into the high-quality enterprise category.

• Traditional manual document review processes can be replaced by automated handling using electronic orders and logistics information from service companies, streamlining cross-border e-commerce payment settlements and netting operations.

• Banks are guided to continuously enhance service quality, efficiently handling customized or complex foreign exchange transactions under current accounts.

3. Enhancing Service Trade Fund Management

• Contracting engineering enterprises are allowed to open centralized overseas accounts to manage funds across multiple projects and countries, improving allocation flexibility and reducing idle project capital.

• Payment procedures for advance-funded services, including customs, warehousing, and logistics, are simplified, increasing efficiency in fund settlement.

SAFE emphasized that these measures aim to balance development and risk management while ensuring that policy benefits are delivered quickly and accurately to enterprises. The initiative builds on SAFE’s ongoing efforts since 2022 to pilot high-standard cross-border trade facilitation programs, which now cover 11 regions in China.