UnionPay Crackdown on PoS Terminals May Turn into Bitcoin Gain. newsbtc bitcoin news China has been known for its strict control over capital outflow. The government has introduced regulations that limits capital outflow to 50,000 yuan per year per individual. However, the Chinese have been innovative and finding different ways to move money out of the mainland to invest in overseas assets. In the wake of the recent devaluation of yuan, the Chinese government has woken up and tightened the screws around illegal overseas transactions.
As the Chinese government is trying to stabilize the economy by devaluing the currency and liquidating its foreign exchange reserves, increased capital outflow threatens to make the whole exercise futile. Once Chinese officially decided to devalue the yuan, it created panic among citizens. They realized that the value of their hard earned money and savings is going to drop. This led to a new wave of outward capital flow as they preferred to park their savings and funds either in different currency denominations or invest in assets abroad. However, in order to be able to do that, they had to find ways to overcome/circumvent the capital controls.
The Chinese found different ways to circumvent capital controls. Starting from underground banks to fake credit card charges to bitcoin, they have considered all. The government of China recently cracked down on underground banking in the country. This lead to search, seizure and closure of many such establishments. However, the credit card channel was overlooked until the surge in transactions was hard to go unnoticed. Merchants have been misusing the UnionPay electronic cards payment system to circumvent capital controls. It has become a norm for people to cash their UnionPay credit and debit cards in places like Macau and still show these transactions to have happened on the mainland. […]
