The two departments issued the "Management Measures for Anti-Money Laundering Work of Real Estate Practitioners"

According to the Zhitong Finance APP, recently, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the People's Bank of China issued the "Management Measures for Anti-Money Laundering Work of Real Estate Practitioners." Real estate practitioners who discover or have reasonable grounds to suspect that a client's proposed housing transaction is related to money laundering or other criminal activities must promptly submit a suspicious transaction report to the China Anti-Money Laundering Monitoring and Analysis Center. Real estate practitioners should fully consider the money laundering risks they face, take preventive and monitoring measures in accordance with the law, establish and improve internal control systems for anti-money laundering, and designate internal institutions or personnel responsible for anti-money laundering work.

The original text is as follows:

Management Measures for Anti-Money Laundering Work of Real Estate Practitioners

Chapter 1     General Principles

Article 1   In order to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing (hereinafter collectively referred to as money laundering) activities, curb money laundering and related crimes, and strengthen and standardize the anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing (hereinafter collectively referred to as anti-money laundering) work of real estate practitioners, these measures are formulated in accordance with the "Anti-Money Laundering Law of the People's Republic of China," the "Anti-Terrorism Law of the People's Republic of China," and other laws and regulations.

Article 2   Real estate development enterprises or real estate intermediary agencies (hereinafter collectively referred to as real estate practitioners) that are legally established within the territory of the People's Republic of China and provide housing sales and housing brokerage services shall perform anti-money laundering obligations in accordance with the provisions of these measures.

Article 3   The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, in conjunction with the People's Bank of China, shall formulate regulations for the anti-money laundering management of real estate practitioners and supervise and manage the anti-money laundering work of the national real estate industry.

Housing and urban-rural development authorities at all levels shall supervise and inspect the performance of anti-money laundering obligations by real estate practitioners in accordance with the law, guide self-regulatory organizations in the real estate industry to strengthen self-regulatory management of anti-money laundering, handle anti-money laundering supervision and management suggestions put forward by the People's Bank of China and its dispatched institutions, and perform other anti-money laundering responsibilities as stipulated by laws and the State Council.

The China Appraisal Society of Real Estate and Real Estate Agents, the China Real Estate Association, and relevant local self-regulatory organizations in the real estate industry shall carry out self-regulatory management of anti-money laundering in accordance with the law under the guidance of housing and urban-rural development authorities.

Article 4   The supervision and management of anti-money laundering in the real estate industry shall follow the principle of risk-based approach, determining regulatory measures that match the risks for different real estate practitioners based on effective identification of the money laundering risk status of the industry and practitioners.

Article 5   Real estate practitioners shall perform anti-money laundering obligations in accordance with the law, accept anti-money laundering supervision and self-regulatory management, and cooperate with the anti-money laundering investigations conducted by the People's Bank of China and its dispatched institutions.

Real estate practitioners and their staff shall not engage in money laundering activities or facilitate money laundering activities.

Article 6   Customer identity information and transaction information obtained from the lawful performance of anti-money laundering duties or obligations

Anti-money laundering investigation information and other anti-money laundering information shall be kept confidential; unless provided by law, it shall not be disclosed to any unit or individual.

Article 7 Real estate industry institutions and their staff shall be legally protected when handling customer identity information, transactions, and related information in accordance with the law while fulfilling anti-money laundering obligations within the territory, including submitting suspicious transaction reports.

Chapter 2 Anti-money Laundering Obligations

Article 8 Real estate industry institutions shall fully consider the money laundering risks they face, take preventive and monitoring measures in accordance with the law, establish and improve internal control systems for anti-money laundering, and designate internal institutions or personnel responsible for anti-money laundering work.

Article 9 Real estate industry institutions shall take reasonable measures to regularly identify and assess the money laundering risks faced by the institution, and based on the risk assessment results, formulate and implement appropriate money laundering risk management systems and measures, continuously monitoring their implementation.

Article 10 When real estate development enterprises sell houses to customers, or real estate intermediary institutions provide brokerage services for customers buying and selling houses, if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the customer and their transactions are related to money laundering activities, they shall take the following measures to understand the customer's identity information and transaction purposes:

(1) Verify the resident identity card, passport, or other reliable and independent identification materials provided by individuals; retain copies or photocopies of the customer's identification materials; inquire and record their transaction purposes.

(2) Verify the business license or other reliable and independent identification materials provided by legal persons and non-legal entities; identify the beneficial owners of the customer; retain copies or photocopies of the customer's identification materials; inquire and record their transaction purposes.

(3) If an agent handles the business, they shall verify and retain the identification materials and proof of agency relationship provided by the agent based on understanding the customer's identity information and transaction purposes.

Real estate development enterprises shall complete the aforementioned work before signing the house sale contract with the customer, and real estate intermediary institutions shall complete the work within a reasonable period before facilitating the customer to sign the house sale contract.

Article 11 Real estate industry institutions shall not sell houses or provide brokerage services to customers with unidentified identities. If a customer refuses to cooperate in providing identification materials and other information, the institution may refuse to sell houses or provide brokerage services to them and, depending on the situation, submit a suspicious transaction report to the China Anti-Money Laundering Monitoring and Analysis Center.

Article 12 Real estate industry institutions shall take proper measures to completely and accurately retain the obtained customer identity data and transaction records, with a retention period of no less than ten years.

Article 13 If real estate industry institutions discover or have reasonable grounds to suspect that a customer's intended house transaction is related to money laundering or other criminal activities, they shall promptly submit a suspicious transaction report to the China Anti-Money Laundering Monitoring and Analysis Center.

The format and reporting requirements for suspicious transaction reports shall be separately stipulated by the China Anti-Money Laundering Monitoring and Analysis Center.

Article 14 Real estate industry institutions shall take special preventive measures against money laundering in accordance with the law for the entities listed in the following list: (1) The list of terrorist organizations and individuals identified by the National Anti-Terrorism Working Group and announced by its office;

(2) The list of organizations and individuals involved in terrorist financing and financing for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, as specified in the notice issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the implementation of United Nations Security Council resolutions;

(3) The list of organizations and individuals identified by the People's Bank of China or in conjunction with relevant national authorities, which pose significant money laundering risks and may cause serious consequences if no measures are taken.

Upon verification, if the entities listed and their agents, organizations and individuals directed by them, or organizations directly or indirectly controlled by them are found, the sale of houses or provision of brokerage services to them must be immediately stopped, and relevant departments must be reported in accordance with the law.

Article 15 Real estate practitioners should actively cooperate with industry regulatory authorities or self-regulatory organizations to promote anti-money laundering social awareness, participate in anti-money laundering training organized by industry regulatory authorities or self-regulatory organizations, and continuously conduct anti-money laundering training for their management personnel and employees.

Article 16 Real estate practitioners should reasonably determine the content of anti-money laundering internal audits or inspections based on the money laundering risk situation, or include content that is consistent with money laundering risk management needs in internal audits or inspections and social audits, to supervise the effective implementation of anti-money laundering internal control systems.

Chapter 3 Anti-Money Laundering Supervision and Management

Article 17 Housing and urban-rural development authorities at all levels shall supervise and inspect the performance of anti-money laundering obligations by real estate practitioners. When conducting supervision and inspection, housing and urban-rural development authorities should avoid or minimize the impact on the normal production and operation activities of real estate practitioners.

The People's Bank of China and its dispatched institutions shall establish a communication mechanism with housing and urban-rural development authorities at the same level to assist in the legal supervision and inspection of anti-money laundering by housing and urban-rural development authorities.

Article 18 The China Real Estate Appraisers and Agents Association and the China Real Estate Industry Association, under the guidance of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, shall undertake the self-regulatory management responsibilities for anti-money laundering in the real estate industry, including:

(1) Formulating self-regulatory management norms and work guidelines for practitioners;

(2) Identifying and assessing money laundering and terrorist financing risks in the real estate industry, issuing risk alerts, and taking measures commensurate with the risks;

(3) Guiding practitioners to comply with anti-money laundering laws and regulations and self-regulatory norms, enhancing industry compliance awareness and risk prevention capabilities;

(4) Coordinating and organizing practitioners to submit suspicious transaction reports;

(5) Implementing self-regulatory management for practitioners and their staff regarding anti-money laundering, and punishing practitioners and their staff who violate these measures and self-regulatory norms;

(6) Conducting research, training, and publicity on anti-money laundering in the real estate industry;

(7) Reporting relevant situations to the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and proposing policy recommendations;

(8) Guiding and coordinating local self-regulatory organizations in the real estate industry to carry out local anti-money laundering self-regulatory management work;

(9) Other self-regulatory management responsibilities authorized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Local real estate industry self-regulatory organizations, under the guidance of the housing and urban-rural development authorities in their respective locations, undertake the responsibilities of anti-money laundering self-regulation for the real estate industry in their regions.

Article 19 The real estate industry self-regulatory organizations shall reasonably implement the following measures for anti-money laundering self-regulation of the operating institutions:

(1) Require operating institutions to report their anti-money laundering work regularly or irregularly, and continuously monitor the money laundering risk status of the operating institutions;

(2) Follow the risk-based principle to conduct self-regulatory inspections on the fulfillment of anti-money laundering obligations by operating institutions;

(3) Provide corrective opinions to operating institutions with prominent risks or violations in their anti-money laundering work;

(4) Handle complaints or reports regarding the anti-money laundering work of operating institutions;

(5) Strengthen the review of membership qualifications for operating institutions, paying attention to whether the operating institutions and their major shareholders, beneficial owners, and senior management are involved in money laundering and related criminal activities;

(6) Take self-regulatory disciplinary measures against operating institutions and their staff found to have illegal or irregular behaviors;

(7) Take other relevant measures as needed for anti-money laundering self-regulation or as authorized or entrusted by the housing and urban-rural development authorities.

If the real estate industry self-regulatory organizations discover that operating institutions violate the relevant provisions of these measures and should be administratively punished, they shall promptly report to the housing and urban-rural development authorities in their location.

Article 20 Based on the effective identification of money laundering risk status in the real estate industry, the housing and urban-rural development authorities may reasonably determine the supervision and management measures and frequency for different types or risk levels of real estate operating institutions. Strengthened regulatory measures shall be taken for high-risk operating institutions, while simplified regulatory measures may be adopted for low-risk operating institutions.

Chapter 4 Legal Responsibilities

Article 21 If real estate operating institutions violate the relevant provisions of these measures, they shall be punished by the real estate authorities of the local people's government at or above the county level in accordance with Article 58 of the Anti-Money Laundering Law of the People's Republic of China. Violations of the Anti-Terrorism Law of the People's Republic of China and other relevant laws shall be handled in accordance with the relevant legal provisions.

Article 22 Real estate operating institutions and their staff who violate the anti-money laundering self-regulatory norms of the real estate industry shall be subject to self-regulatory disciplinary actions by the real estate industry self-regulatory organizations.

Article 23 Staff from housing and urban-rural development authorities at all levels, the People's Bank of China and its dispatched institutions, and real estate industry self-regulatory organizations who violate the relevant provisions of these measures shall be held legally accountable.

Chapter 5 Supplementary Provisions

Article 24 These measures shall be interpreted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development in conjunction with the People's Bank of China.

Article 25 These measures shall come into effect on September 1, 2025. Previous regulations on anti-money laundering in the real estate industry that are inconsistent with these measures shall be implemented in accordance with these measures.

This article is excerpted from: The official website of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development; Edited by Chen Xiaoyi of Zhitong Finance