(Yicai Global) Feb. 8 -- China's central bank issued an official document entitled PBOC General Office's Notice on Cleaning up Finance Advertisements, with an aim to crack down on illegal advertising related to financial products.

In its notice, the People's Bank of China stressed the need to continue monitoring finance advertisements as part of a targeted campaign to address online financial risks. It also called for stricter management of ads related to internet finance. PBOC also decided to entrust the national internet finance association of China to centrally monitor internet finance advertisements.

The new notice demands authorities fully standardize and regulate the advertisements and promotion activities of licensed institutions, double-check their marketing behavior, and pay attention to the legality of new media channels they use for advertising and promotion. To crack down on illegal finance advertising and marketing by unlicensed institutions, authorities should also take into account finance consumers' complaints and use regulatory collaboration mechanisms to facilitate supervision.

To this end, the central bank will cooperate with relevant departments to take proper measures against traditional and new media platforms which help publish unauthorized finance advertisements.

PBOC will trial regional finance advertisement rectification actions in the eastern Zhejiang province and Shenzhen, China's tech hub in the southern Guangdong province, as part of a pilot program to explore possible setup of a working mechanism that will include monitoring, processing, and rectification of finance advertisements, sources told Yicai Global.