The CBRC has issued on 20 January 2015 The Notice on the
Promotion Guidelines for banking applications of secure and
controllable information technology (2014-2015) ("CBRC
Guidelines"). The CBRC Guidelines has immediately set off a
panic amongst financial institutions operating in PRC and
software/hardware/service vendors. The CBRC Guidelines require
banks to use "secure and controllable" IT, but many
foreign invested financial institutions and vendors are concerned
that the guidelines are a large incremental step in an on-going
trend aimed at their exclusion from the Chinese market.
The Slow March
The invasive behavior of by PRC authorities in relation to
financial institution IT systems started with the issuance by CBRC
on 3 March 2009 the Guidelines for commercial banks on
management of information technology. These regulations were
very general in nature but on reflection they did hint at what was
yet to come.
