China will require its financial institutions to submit monthly reports on their foreign currency assets and liabilities, as it steps up monitoring of the financial sector in the wake of the global credit crisis.

The requirement will be implemented in late October and will include both domestic and overseas branches of Chinese institutions. The reports will be submitted to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, China's foreign exchange watchdog.

The global financial crisis has saddled some Chinese financial institutions with heavy losses on foreign currency assets. Analysts believed this could be one factor behind the move.

(CCTV October 24, 2008)