Information date: 10 October 2026 — A foreign-invested company in China normally runs three separate accounts: a foreign-exchange capital account that receives shareholder equity, a basic RMB current account used for daily operations, payroll and tax, and a foreign-debt account used for registered intercompany loans. Each account is purpose-bound, and none can freely substitute for another. Knowing that statement is not enough for an operating, research or compliance decision. The team must first establish who and what it applies to, how the effect reaches the real process, and which evidence would justify action.
Verified facts and scope
A foreign-invested company in China normally runs three separate accounts: a foreign-exchange capital account that receives shareholder equity, a basic RMB current account used for daily operations, payroll and tax, and a foreign-debt account used for registered intercompany loans. Each account is purpose-bound, and none can freely substitute for another.
Before opening any account, confirm the registered capital amount and currency, whether a shareholder loan needs SAFE foreign-debt registration, the bank's KYC document list, headcount to be paid, expected monthly RMB spend, and whether export proceeds will be received through a separate settlement account.
How the effect reaches operations
The FX framework links capital-account inflows to the registered capital stated in the business licence and to the negative list governing conversion of capital-account RMB. The current account, by contrast, is convertible for genuine current-account transactions. Intercompany loans sit between the two: they must be registered with SAFE before drawdown, or repayment cannot be repatriated on schedule.
Recurring errors include paying salaries or suppliers directly from a capital account, converting capital-account RMB and then on-lending to an unrelated party, booking a shareholder loan as equity, and overrunning the SAFE foreign-debt ceiling calculated from registered capital and the macro-prudential formula.
For “China Bank Account Types Compared: Capital, Current and Intercompany Loan Accounts — What Each Can Receive and Pay”, official rules or published findings, direct evidence from the relevant product or process, and assumptions that remain untested should be recorded separately. A broad source defines the external boundary; it does not replace batch records, protocols, contracts, labels or direct observations.
Decision
If the money is committed equity to be spent locally, route it through the capital account and convert onshore. If the parent is only bridging working capital, complete foreign-debt registration first. If the source is domestic revenue, use the basic current account. Open them in that sequence rather than all three at once.
Implementation checklist
- Map every expected inflow to one of the three account types before opening.
- Ask the servicing bank for its purpose-code and document list in writing.
- Confirm foreign-debt registration and quota before any shareholder loan is drawn.
- Assign one decision owner, one implementation owner and a dated review point for “China Bank Account Types Compared: Capital, Current and Intercompany Loan Accounts — What Each Can Receive and Pay”.
- For “China Bank Account Types Compared: Capital, Current and Intercompany Loan Accounts — What Each Can Receive and Pay”, archive the source page, access date, applicable population or entity, and internal evidence both supporting and opposing the current decision.
- When a rule, formulation, supplier, protocol or observed result changes, reopen only the affected question in “China Bank Account Types Compared: Capital, Current and Intercompany Loan Accounts — What Each Can Receive and Pay”.
Evidence and review
For “China Bank Account Types Compared: Capital, Current and Intercompany Loan Accounts — What Each Can Receive and Pay”, start with one real case rather than an abstract checklist. Record the input version, responsible owner, start time, observed result and stop condition. If the team cannot complete “Map every expected inflow to one of the three account types before opening.” with current evidence, it should not expand the process to more products, patients, suppliers or markets. The first review should focus only on facts capable of changing the decision.
The second control follows “Ask the servicing bank for its purpose-code and document list in writing.”. Keep the source date, applicable population or entity, deadline, cost effect and owner in the same evidence file. A wording preference does not justify a new version. A repeated discrepancy, an unsupported health claim or a regulatory mismatch does: correct that point and hold release until the evidence is available.
After “Confirm foreign-debt registration and quota before any shareholder loan is drawn.”, compare the intended outcome with what actually happened. Apply the same success criteria to each later expansion. If only one number, date or responsibility changes, update that field and the affected conclusion instead of recreating evidence that remains valid. This keeps the decision traceable without turning review into an open-ended rewrite cycle.
Limits of the conclusion
This comparison reflects general practice and is not legal, tax or foreign-exchange advice; account rules vary by bank, city and business model and must be confirmed with the servicing bank and the local SAFE branch.
