China’s central bank is collecting public comments for a set of guidelines governing the country’s 185 nonbank payment providers including Alipay and WeChat Pay, offering a five-year window for institutions to comply.
The People's Bank of China on Monday began to solicit public opinion on the detailed rules regulating the non-bank payment institutions, as a part of efforts to enhance their supervision and management.
The document aims to detail the regulations for the supervision and administration of non-bank payment institutions, which were issued by the State Council last December.
The document offers further clarification on key concepts, such as major shareholders and actual controllers, as outlined in the regulations, and details administrative licensing procedures for the non-bank payment institutions.
Through the move, the central bank hopes to bolster transparency and openness in the administrative process and foster greater efficiency in payment institutions so as to create a law-based business environment.
In protecting the legal rights and interests of payment users, it specifies requirements regarding the retention period of user data and transaction records, as well as adjustments to fees.
In recent years, China has witnessed remarkable growth in its non-bank payment industry. Data shows that over 1 trillion transactions are made in the country via non-bank payment institutions annually, with a total value at approximately 400 trillion yuan (US$56.3 trillion).
