CRI听力:China Releases Detailed Regulation on Non-banking Online Payment

The new rules are going limit online transactions through non-banking accounts to a maximum of 200-thousand yuan per year.

Transactions will also require real-name registration for all non-bank payment accounts.

And depending on the services required, users are also going to be required to submit certain information when signing up for the services.

Fan Shuangwen with the payment and clearance department at the People's Bank of China says the new rules won't be complicated.

"The only thing people are required to do is to provide their personal information, but you won't bother you, as long as you prove you are yourself. It will be the institutions' duty to verify the information."

The size of payments allowed through these accounts are going to range from 1,000 to 200,000 yuan per year.

The cap size has triggered concerns by those who want to do a lot of shopping overseas.

However, Fan Shuangwen says the limit the Chinese central bank has come up with is reasonable.

"When setting the payment cap, we took into account both the current status of online business in China and the internet-based consumption growth in the near future. What we're hoping to do is not inconvenience for customers, but rather, ensure that their online payments are safe."

Transactions through banking platforms would not be subject to the regulation.

The People's Bank of China says it's bringing in the policy to contain possible risks, saying it hopes to avoid large sums of money being deposited into third-party payment accounts, which are beyond the protection deposit insurance, and could leave consumers vulnerable to possible risks.

Chen Long with online payment platform Ant Financial said the changes aren't going to mean much for their average customers.

"Under the new regulation, there will be some changes to the user experience of online payment, but the existing online payment model won't change drastically."
The new policy will become effective on July 1st this coming year.

In addition to limiting the size of transactions, the new rules also ban payment institutions from opening accounts for firms engaged in financial businesses.

China's third-party payment industry has been booming ever since the launch of Alibaba's Alipay back in 2004.

Through the first three quarters of this year, online transaction volumes in China came in at just under 33-trillion yuan, an increase of nearly 99-percent compared with the same period last year.

However, with the exception of Alipay and Tencent's Tenpay, who have branched off into selling wealth management products, most other third-party payment firms have struggled to find a foot-hold in the market.

A number of them have attempted to branch-off into areas such as commodity trading, peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding.

For CRI, this is Zhao Jianfu.