Does the notice issued by the CBRC have legal effect?

Have legal effect. The relevant notices of CBRC are mainly distributed to banking regulatory bureaus, policy banks, state-owned commercial banks, joint-stock commercial banks, postal savings banks, trust companies directly supervised by CBRC, enterprise group finance companies and financial leasing companies. According to the notice, a few banking financial institutions and their employees have recently taken part in private lending, illegal guarantee and illegal fund-raising activities, which have caused great repercussions in society, adversely affected the image of banking financial institutions and brought greater risks to the asset safety of relevant institutions. The announcement aims to standardize the behavior of banking financial institutions and their employees, and effectively prevent risks caused by private lending, illegal guarantees and illegal fund-raising from being transferred to the banking system. The circular requires all banking financial institutions and their employees to carry out business activities in accordance with laws and regulations, and shall not directly or in disguised form participate in private lending, illegal guarantee and illegal fund-raising activities. To sum up, the CBRC has made it clear that it is strictly forbidden for bank employees to participate in private lending activities. However, China's laws do not clearly stipulate that bank employees who participate in private lending will violate the law, but those who meet the criminal conditions will be convicted and sentenced.