The Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of Non-bank Payment Institutions (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations"), which has attracted much attention from the market, was officially announced recently. This means that non-bank payments have ushered in the "basic law" of the industry. As the first administrative regulation in the financial field issued after the convening of the first financial work conference, the "Regulations" complement the legal system of non-bank payment institutions in China's legal system, solve the problem of low legal level of supervision of non-bank payment institutions in the past, and bring the whole chain and full-cycle supervision of the non-bank payment industry into the track of rule of law and standardization.
According to the data, the scale of mobile payment business of non-bank payment institutions in 2022 will be 10,0468.4 billion transactions, with a total transaction volume of 34806 trillion yuan. The vigorous development of the non-bank payment industry has made positive contributions to the development of the real economy and the improvement of people's livelihood. At the same time, as China's payment industry has entered a mature period from a period of rapid development, the market has also exposed some problems that need to be rectified urgently. For example, there are institutions that illegally engage in payment operations without permission;Some non-bank payment institutions are interconnected and directly connected, and inter-bank clearing through banks in violation of regulationsSome institutions operate in violation of regulations and misappropriate customer reserves;Some institutions even provide channels for the transfer of funds for illegal and criminal activities such as telecommunications network fraud and cross-border gambling. According to incomplete statistics from the public information of the regulatory authorities, in the whole year of 2022, at least 56 fines were issued in the third-party payment field, and the total amount of fines and confiscations exceeded 27.1 billion yuan.
In response to these problems, the promulgation of the "Regulations" is timely, and the spirit of the first financial work conference has been implemented. The new regulations start from four aspects: first, adhere to the licensed operation and strict entry threshold;The second is to improve the rules of payment business and strengthen risk managementThe third is to strengthen the protection of users' rights and interests;Fourth, increase the degree of punishment for serious violations of laws and regulations in accordance with the law. These measures are the highlight and the focus, the right "pulse" and the right "square", aiming to further strengthen supervision, put an end to "unlicensed road", promote product innovation in an orderly manner, better meet the people's demand for payment business, and allow more users to participate in various economic consumption activities safely and conveniently.
It is worth noting that, based on years of regulatory practice, the Regulations draw on the experience of other countries and regions in the classification of payment business, adhere to the concept of functional supervision, and start from the essence of the business, according to whether it can receive the payer's advance funds, divided into two categories: stored value account operation and payment transaction processing. Such a classification can help eliminate regulatory gaps and better avoid regulatory arbitrage.
It is foreseeable that in the future, the development focus and most applicable scenarios of non-bank payment institutions will still be small-amount, high-frequency convenient payment scenarios. This also puts forward the requirement for non-bank payment institutions to adhere to the "standard". The majority of non-bank payment institutions should focus on their main business around the concept of "payment for the people", prevent business alienation, better protect users' property security and information security, and provide assistance for the development of the real economy. Regulatory departments should also adhere to the problem-oriented, prescribe the right medicine, so as to block the wrong door and open the right door, and promote the healthy and standardized development of the industry.
To sum up, the "Regulations" upgrade the system that has been effective in the past regulatory practice to administrative regulations, build a perfect market-oriented mechanism in terms of access and exit, business rules, etc., and improve the fairness and transparency of the market, which is not only conducive to creating a law-based business environment, stabilizing the expectations of all parties, stimulating market vitality, and promoting the standardization of the non-bank payment industry, but also conducive to protecting the legitimate rights and interests of users, and better preventing and resolving major risks, so as to achieve a win-win situation for all parties. (This article**: Economy** Author: Zhang Guodong).
Contributed by China Economic Net).