According to new rules released by the People's Bank of China on Tuesday, financial institutions such as banks and insurers will be required to report large and suspect transactions to anti-money laundering authorities.

The new rules, which come into effect next March, came on the heels of the country's first anti-money laundering law, which was passed last month and is effective in January.

The new rules set out specific definitions of large and suspect transactions that must be reported to the Anti-Money Laundering Monitoring and Analysis Centre, an office under the central bank.

A single transaction exceeding 200,000 yuan (US$25,400) or a transaction with accumulated value of 200,000 yuan within a day are defined as large transactions.

For foreign currency, the sum is US$10,000.

As for suspicious transactions, securities dealers, futures brokers and fund management companies should report if they notice idle accounts being suddenly reactivated and large transactions taking place over a short period, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Also, commercial banks, credit unions, postal savings institutions and trust companies have also been warned to look out for sudden closure of accounts following large transfers, loans paid back ahead of schedule and transactions that do not tally with clients' financial status.

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