China's Draft Financial Law
中华人民共和国金融法（草案）
What a New "Master Statute" Means for Cross-Border Business and Wealth
新《金融法》草案对跨境企业与财富管理的深远影响
By Brian B. Su, President, Artisan Business Group · 苏丰原，雅商顾问公司总裁
Analysis based on the draft tabled June 26, 2026 (11 chapters, 95 articles). Final text may differ.
本分析基于2026年6月26日提交一审的草案文本（共11章95条）。最终定稿可能有所不同。
The Significance Is Structural, Not Incremental
China already has standalone laws governing banking, insurance, and securities. The draft Financial Law is not meant to join that shelf. It is designed to sit above it — the unifying statute that all sector laws must align to. Two features give that ambition teeth: all financial activity comes under supervision, and regulators are directed to judge by substance over form.
The era in which form could be used to outrun substance is the era this law is built to close.
这是结构性变化，不是渐进式修订
中国现有银行、保险、证券各领域单行法。新《金融法》草案并非与之并列，而是凌驾其上——成为统领所有行业法规的母法。其力度来自两个核心原则：将一切金融活动全部纳入监管，以及监管机关按照实质重于形式原则审查所有安排。
靠形式设计规避实质监管的时代，正是这部法律要终结的时代。
Six Provisions That Reshape the Cross-Border Landscape
重塑跨境格局的六大关键条款
English
Regulators are directed to look past how an arrangement is labeled or structured and assess what it actually is. Layered holding structures, creatively named instruments, and arrangements that are financial in everything but their paperwork are explicitly targeted.
中文
监管机关将穿透交易的形式外壳，直接审查其实质。分层持股架构、创意性命名工具、以及实质为金融业务但形式上未登记为金融活动的安排，均被纳入监管范围。
English
The draft bars any organization or individual from executing or assisting in the execution of foreign discriminatory financial measures directed at Chinese citizens and entities (Art. 85). This creates a direct structural bind for Chinese enterprises operating in the U.S. or Europe: comply with foreign sanctions regimes and risk breaching this provision, or honor this rule and fall out of compliance abroad.
中文
草案第八十五条明确规定，禁止任何组织或个人执行或协助执行外国对中国公民、组织的歧视性金融限制措施。对在美国或欧洲运营的中国企业而言，这将产生直接的双重合规困境：遵从外国制裁要求，则可能违反本条；遵从本条，则可能违反境外合规要求。
English
Regulators may bar individuals suspected of financial violations from leaving the country where departure could harm national security or interests (Art. 55, Item 7). This applies to those under suspicion. For an individual retaining substantial financial assets or unresolved business in China, a planned exit is not guaranteed to remain available at the moment it is most needed.
中文
第五十五条第七项赋予监管机关对出境可能危害国家安全和利益的涉嫌违法人员，决定不准出境的权力。该条款针对的是涉嫌违法人员，但对于在中国仍持有大量金融资产或存在未了结业务的当事人，计划中的撤离路径在最需要时未必仍然畅通。
English
The draft affirms support for cross-border capital moving through lawful, orderly channels while committing to penalize capital moving through informal or illicit ones — underground remittance networks, distributed currency swaps, crypto workarounds. Paired with strengthened AML requirements and a national coordination mechanism targeting illegal financial activity.
中文
草案明确支持通过合法有序渠道进行的跨境资金流动，同时承诺对通过非正式或非法渠道（地下汇款网络、分散式货币兑换、加密货币变通手段）转移的资本予以打击。配套强化的反洗钱要求与全国打非协调机制将同步推进。
English
Liability is extended explicitly to those who organize or assist a financial violation, not only the party who commits it (Art. 87). The advisor who helps a client take the informal route now shares the exposure. This changes the basis of competition in the cross-border advisory industry.
中文
第八十七条将法律责任明确延伸至组织或协助他人实施金融违法行为的第三方，而非仅限于直接违法者。协助客户走非正式渠道的顾问，现在将与其客户共同承担法律风险。
English
Financial data of national-security relevance falls within the scope of security review (Art. 83). A live concern for any cross-border operation that moves data as a matter of course — which includes virtually every U.S.–China business operation.
中文
第八十三条将对影响或可能影响国家安全的金融数据处理活动进行国家安全审查。对任何涉及跨境数据流动的业务而言，这是一个现实的合规风险——实际上涵盖了几乎所有美中跨境经营主体。
Implications by Audience
各类跨境主体面临的核心问题与建议行动
Companies Expanding Abroad
跨境出海企业
Single-jurisdiction compliance advice no longer describes your actual risk surface — exposure is bilateral.
单一司法管辖区的合规建议已无法覆盖您的真实风险面——合规风险是双向的。
Review all arrangements that could be characterized as 'financial' under the new broad definition (Art. 3).
审查所有可能被认定为金融活动的安排（第三条定义范围极广）。
Assess your data flows — cross-border financial data may trigger national security review.
评估跨境数据流动情况——金融数据的跨境传输可能触发国家安全审查。
High-Net-Worth Families & Investors
高净值家庭与投资者
Source-of-funds documentation is no longer a formality — the full chain must be lawful and defensible end to end.
资金来源证明不再是形式要件——从资金产生到出境落地的完整链条，必须合法且可举证。
Plan exits early, from a position of calm, while lawful paths remain wide open. The exit restriction provision is now codified.
及早、从容地规划撤离路径，趁合法通道仍然畅通。出境限制权已被法定化。
Informal transfer channels (underground remittance, crypto) carry substantially elevated risk under the draft.
非正式转移渠道（地下汇款、加密货币）在草案下面临大幅上升的法律风险。
Legal & Advisory Professionals
法律与顾问专业人士
Advisor liability is now explicit — assisting a violation carries the same penalties as committing one.
顾问连带责任已被明文规定——协助违法行为与直接违法行为适用相同处罚。
Firms must treat compliance as the core of the offering, not an afterthought. The gray-space business model is untenable.
机构必须将合规管理作为服务核心，而非附加项。在灰色地带经营的商业模式已不可持续。
Competitive advantage shifts to firms that can reason about both Chinese and foreign rule sets simultaneously.
竞争优势向能够同步处理中国与境外法律合规要求的机构转移。
What to Do with a Draft
This is a draft at first reading, and the final text may differ. We are not advising clients to react to specific articles that could still change.
We are advising them to read the direction, which is unmistakable — a single, more penetrating supervisory net over the whole of financial activity, judged by substance rather than form. The right response is not to wager on which clauses survive. It is to position early, while the lawful paths remain open and wide.
Planning from a position of calm, before the window narrows, costs a fraction of what it costs to improvise once it has.
如何看待一部草案
这是一审草案，最终文本可能有所不同。我们不建议客户针对尚可能修改的具体条文作出反应。
我们建议客户读懂方向——而方向是清晰的：一张更具穿透力的单一监管网，覆盖所有金融活动，按实质而非形式进行判断。正确的应对不是赌哪些条款会保留，而是趁合法路径仍然宽阔时及早布局。
在窗口收窄之前从容规划，成本远低于窗口收窄之后的临时应对。
Brian B. Su · 苏丰原
President, Artisan Business Group · 雅商顾问公司总裁
Independent Director of a Nasdaq-listed company · 美国纳斯达克某上市公司独立董事及薪酬委员会主席
"If you are weighing a cross-border decision — corporate expansion, a wealth or mobility plan, or a restructuring of either — we would welcome the conversation while there is room to act with intent. This has been the through-line of our work for seventeen years."
「如果您正在权衡跨境决策——企业扩张、财富或移民规划，或两者的重新调整——在仍有充裕空间主动布局时，欢迎与我们深入交流。这是我们十七年工作的一贯主线。」