Strengthen supervision of prepaid fees in elderly care institutions. Two departments issue documents to improve custodial rules.

On November 19th, it was learned from the Ministry of Civil Affairs that in order to strengthen the supervision of advance fees in elderly care institutions and improve the third-party custody system of commercial banks, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission recently jointly issued the "Guidelines for the Custody of Advance Fees in Elderly Care Institutions", which stipulates the opening, modification, and cancellation of special deposit accounts for elderly care institutions, as well as requirements for the use and refund of custody funds and abnormal fund flows. The guidelines clarify that a special deposit account for advance fees refers to an account opened by an elderly care institution in a commercial bank, used to deposit and manage deposits and membership fees collected in advance from the elderly, as well as a separate account for risk reserves as required. If an elderly care institution cancels a special deposit account, it should report in advance to the supervising Ministry of Civil Affairs on how to handle the custody funds, and from the date of the report, it is not allowed to collect deposits or membership fees from the elderly.