rein in online payment

1、<p>　　Rein in Online Payment</p><p>　　This March， People’s Bank of China， the central bank of this country， issued the Management Methods of Online Payment Business of Third-party Payment Organizations

2、（hereafter the Management Methods） and the Guiding Opinions for the Development of Mobile Payment Business to China’s thirdpayment enterprises to collect advices. </p><p>　　The core content of the two files，

3、 which is considered to be the most “destructive”force， is the proposal of capping the amount of transfer and spending by individual payment accounts. </p><p>　　A senior executive from a third-party payment

4、company sighed ? if these rules are really put into practice， the thirdparty payment industry is near its end. </p><p>　　“The two files were just issued to ask for advices. No one knows what the final versio

5、n looks like，” said a source close to the central bank. Actually， the central bank asked for advices for the Management Methods early in 2012 and had made several modifications to this document. </p><p>　　It

6、 is an undeniable fact that the central bank is enhancing the regulation over the online payment， but no one could expect the regulation could be enhanced so much. </p><p>　　“The sudden notice （from the cent

7、ral bank） is really scary，” an insider from Tecent said. “At first we did not receive the notice from the central bank. We just saw the news from the Internet.” It was not until the afternoon of March 14 that Tecent rece

8、ived the central bank’s notice of halting the virtue credit card and the two-dimension code payment. </p><p>　　Behind the Storm of Monitor </p><p>　　The source close to the central bank revealed

9、 that the institution might make up its mind to enhance the regulation over the online payment when they study into the payment pattern of taxi-calling app， which they did not agree on. </p><p>　　In February

10、， the thirdparty payment organizations in China were invited to take part in the conference for the advices to the Management Methods. The conference was hosted by Chinese Association of Payment Clearing. A participant i

11、n this conference said that “they were forbidden to take photos or notes of the draft for the advices.” </p><p>　　“After seeing this version of Management Methods， the third-party payment companies reacted s

12、trongly，”the aforementioned source of central bank said. At the end of February 2014， several major third-payment organiza-tions were summoned together to discuss about the Management Methods.“The discussion is really ve

13、ry furious at that time.” </p><p>　　An unconfirmed version of the Management Methods spread in the market said that the sum of a single money transfer of an individual account should not be higher than 1，000

14、 yuan and a client could not transfer the total sum of more than 10 thousand yuan with all his/her accounts in a year. In addition， the payment organizations should apply independent management over the money transferred

15、 into the account and the transferred-out capital can only be used for consumption and transferout， meaning t</p><p>　　“The central bank caps the sum possibly with the goal of positioning the individual paym

16、ent accounts of thirdparty payment organizations at the small consumption accounts，” an insider from a payment company said. But in this age， such a small amount is far from enough. </p><p>　　The insider sai

17、d that “those getting the accounts can win the third-party payment industry”. If the aforementioned rules are really implemented， the thirdparty payment companies can only function as an addition to the banking payment s

18、ystem， depriving them of the opportunity to challenge the banks. </p><p>　　The plan to cap the amount of money transfer and consumption for payment organization’s individual accounts brought many questions t

19、o the Management Methods. On March 13， the central bank also called for the stop of the virtue credit cards as well as the two-dimension code payment. The public began to criticize the central bank for its apparent parti

20、ality towards banks and UnionPay， pushing the central bank to the center of the storm. </p><p>　　China International Capital Corporation Limited （CICC） reviewed that the central bank stopped the virtue credi

21、t cards and two-dimension code payment because these businesses could nullify the UnionPay’s functions and undermine its interest. </p><p>　　“The different versions of the Management Methods show that the ru

22、les are getting stricter，” said the insider from the third-party payment company. Two or three years ago， the third-party payment enterprises were not that influential. In 2013， when Yu E Bao came out， the Internet finan

23、ce suddenly became a hot topic. This caused a seismic effect to the banks and unnerved them apparently. Due to close ties between the banks and the watchdog， the regulatory department must hear the increasingly lou</p

24、><p>　　For this， UnionPay denied that it had to do with the central bank’s decision. It stated that the central bank’s stop of these businesses completely in consideration of the consumers’ interest and safegua

25、rd the payment risks. </p><p>　　The source close to the central bank mentioned above said that the UnionPay also tried to confirm the authenticity of the report about central bank’s stop of the virtue credit

26、 cards and twodimension code payment. That meant the UnionPay knew nothing about the decision and could not be the one to promote the central bank. </p><p>　　“If people consider the act to be a measure to s

27、afeguard the UnionPay’s interest， they think too lowly of the central bank’s regulatory measures，” a central bank’s governmental official said. According to him， the central bank stopped the virtue credit cards and two-d

28、imension code payment neither for killing the Internet finance nor to protect UnionPay. The act is mainly a result of the demand for the regulation of risks under the current legal system. </p><p>　　The Deba

29、te of Safety and Innovation </p><p>　　Now the third-party payment industry is in the face of great changes. Various products and innovations have come out and their risks really become a topic. </p>&

30、lt;p>　　According to the report of 360 Internet Security Center， the rogue programs were spread more quickly through the two-dimension code in 2013. This was because the two-dimension code is used more and more frequen

31、tly as many mobile phone users are used to scanning the code every day. But most of the two-dimension code scanner cannot distinguish the rogue programs and websites， exposing the users’ financial accounts to the risks.

32、</p><p>　　Some Internet security experts said that the payment through two-dimension code is really risky. Some deceivers might disguise the phishing websites or rogue programs in the form of the salespromot

33、ional two-dimension code， which could easily cause the loss of users’ assets. </p><p>　　“The offline POS uses the special connections and the risk is easier to be controlled，” an insider of the central bank

34、said. In addition， the offline payment has a complete and matured system that can provide consummate protection for the consumers. </p><p>　　Apart from the consideration of safety， the development of the thi

35、rd-party payment institutions has deviated from the central bank’s expectation， which is also a cause for central bank’s actions. </p><p>　　The central bank hopes that the third-party payment institutions ca

36、n provide financial services to the areas without advanced financial facilities， but in these years， the online payment orga- nizations are busy contending the market of advanced areas. </p><p>　　The third-p

37、arty payment organizations are busy scrambling for the market in big cities. “Not long ago， Tecent reached an agreement with Wangfujing Department Store on the payment through WeChat. The ‘invasion’ of the online payment

38、 into a well-established traditional offline retail site in Beijing is quite a shock to the central bank， which believes that there have been enough payment services.” 　　The central bank stressed that the online payment

39、 and offline payment belong to different areas. T</p><p>　　Many people worry that the regulation， which is possibly a measure to protect the monopolization of banks and UnionPay， will strangle the innovation

40、 in the financial industry. Yi Huanhuan， deputy director of Hongyuan Securities， said that the stop of the virtue credit cards and two-dimension code payment might be temporary. He also said that the watchdog should be m

41、ore open-minded and flexible towards the new things and address the problems with more subtle measures. </p><p>　　“There is no absolute security. Only the improvement can keep the security. The new business

42、of Tecent and Alibaba are a result of long-time design and experiments. The regulators should pay attention to the problems found in the running of business and think of the solutions，” he said. “The new technologies hav