In the past five years, a total of 1,436 payment institutions have been punished and 1.13 billion yuan has been fined and confiscated.
Strict payment supervision becomes the norm
Our reporter Chen Guojing
At the 10th China Payment and Settlement Forum held a few days ago, Fan Yifei, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, stated that since 2016, the People’s Bank of China has punished banks and payment institutions for 1,436 times, fined and confiscated 1.13 billion yuan; guided 22 payment institutions to take the initiative Withdrawing from the market, 17 payment institutions will not be renewed, and the business licenses of 2 payment institutions that have seriously violated regulations have been revoked. The market exit mechanism of the survival of the fittest in the industry has taken shape.
Since the establishment of the payment business licensing system in 2010, my country’s payment market has continued to develop rapidly, and the number and scale of payment institutions have been rising rapidly.
Today, my country's non-bank payment market has ranked first in the world.
But while the industry is developing rapidly, chaos is gradually exposed.
Some payment institutions illegally "connect directly" and "interconnect", and some institutions "drive without a license" and illegally engage in payment business without permission.
In addition, risky incidents such as illegal operations and misappropriation of customer reserve funds also occur from time to time. Some institutions provide payment methods for gray transactions, and even become channels for illegal and criminal activities such as money laundering.
According to the latest data, since 2020, the People's Bank of China has assisted in investigating more than 5,700 gambling cases and freezing funds of 19.4 billion yuan. Suspicious gambling transactions involving major payment channels have dropped by more than 50% compared with the beginning of 2020, and the average monthly bank accounts of fraud-related units have dropped year-on-year. 91%, imposing financial punishment on 52,000 units and individuals involved in illegal trading accounts.
At the same time, the effect of payment supervision on platform companies is gradually showing.
According to reports, in view of the outstanding problems of current platform companies engaged in financial services such as payment, the central bank interviewed various platform companies and asked them to implement the rectification requirements in an orderly manner.
At present, some regulatory measures have gradually formed institutional norms, and some anti-monopoly regulatory requirements have been incorporated into the draft of the "Regulations on Non-bank Payment Institutions", entering the substantive legislative stage.
"Anti-monopoly in the payment field needs to be deepened." Experts in the industry said that some payment institutions use unfair competition methods such as low-price dumping and cross-subsidy to seize market share, monopolize users, traffic and data, and restrict competition from other institutions.
Some platform companies pursue economies of scale, hold multiple financial business licenses and carry out comprehensive financial services, which can easily cause risk cross-contagion.
If things go on like this, it will not only be detrimental to its own innovation, it will also disrupt the market order, suppress the long-term development of the industry, and weaken the overall leading advantage of my country's electronic payment industry.
In this context, the pace of interconnection in the payment field has accelerated.
Pinduoduo and Meituan have access to more payment channels, including WeChat Pay, Alipay, UnionPay Cloud QuickPass, and Apple Pay.
Up to now, the WeChat Mini Program and Taobao can support UnionPay Cloud QuickPass, and the WeChat Pay collection code and UnionPay Cloud QuickPass App can recognize and scan each other.
Next, strict payment supervision will become the norm.
Fan Yifei said that under the new situation, we must always insist on strict supervision of the payment industry.
Payment involves thousands of households, and to protect the vital interests of the people, it is necessary to strengthen supervision.
We must adhere to normalization and strict supervision, resolutely prevent payment institutions from taking risks due to internal and external reasons, provide payment channels for violations of laws and regulations, or embezzle customer reserve funds, and we must use greater determination, stronger strength and more practical measures to effectively prevent and resolve various issues. Class risk challenge.