The State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration issued the "Measures for the Implementation of Administrative Penalty Discretionary Powers"

　　China News Service, March 29. According to the WeChat public account of the State Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau, in order to standardize the exercise of administrative penalty discretion, promote strict and fair law enforcement, and maintain industry order, the State Financial Supervision and Administration has drafted the "Implementation Measures for Administrative Penalty Discretion". (Draft for Comments)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures"). It is now officially released and will come into effect on May 1, 2024.

　　From December 11, 2023 to January 10, 2024, the State Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau publicly solicited opinions from the public on the "Measures". After in-depth evaluation and verification of the opinions of all parties, the "Measures" were further revised and improved.

　　The full text of the "Measures" consists of four chapters and 32 articles. The main contents include:

　　The first is to strictly standardize law enforcement behavior and clarify the definition of administrative penalty discretion. The implementation of penalty discretion should abide by the basic principles of statutory penalties, excessive penalties, and legal procedures.

　　The second is to refine the discretionary levels and applicable situations. Clarify the basic connotations of mitigated, light, moderate and severe punishments. Implement the requirements of the newly revised "Administrative Penalty Law" and further refine the applicable circumstances of no penalty, reduced penalty, lighter penalty, and heavier penalty. Clarify the factors that should be considered in determining personnel responsibilities, and when punishing multiple responsible personnel, the responsibilities should be prioritized.

　　The third is to standardize the applicable standards for fines and confiscation of illegal income. Clarify the standards for light, moderate and severe fines in the banking and insurance industries, as well as the identification and calculation methods of illegal income, etc.

　　Fourth, it is clear that if the application of the "Measures" may be obviously inappropriate or unfair, or the objective circumstances of the application of the benchmark for penalty discretion change, the application can be adjusted.

　　In the next step, the State Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau will strengthen supervision and guidance and do a good job in the implementation of the "Measures".