Beijing Business Daily (Reporter Liao Meng) Towards the end of the year, tens of millions of yuan fines have reappeared in the payment field. On December 24, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily found that the Guangdong Branch of the People's Bank of China recently disclosed a number of fines against a number of payment institutions, including two fines of tens of millions of yuan. Among the payment institutions fined, one has also had its payment license revoked earlier.
Specifically, Guangdong Huika Business Service *** hereinafter referred to as "Guangdong Huika") was warned and confiscated 330 illegal gains for violating merchant management regulations and payment account management regulations590,000 yuan, and a fine of 1852960,000 yuan, with a total fine of 2,183560,000 yuan. At the same time, Yang Yi, then president of Guangdong Huika, was warned and fined 100,000 yuan.
The "winner" of another 10 million-level fine is Guangdong Xinhui E-commerce *** hereinafter referred to as "Xinhui E-commerce"), the company was warned for violating merchant management regulations and confiscated illegal gains 198670,000 yuan and a fine of 993330,000 yuan, with a total fine of 1,191990,000 yuan. At the same time, Wang Chunjiang, then chairman and general manager of Xinhui E-commerce, was warned and fined 500,000 yuan.
Yilian Payment*** hereinafter referred to as "Yilian Payment") also exceeded 5 million yuan, and the company was warned and confiscated 130 illegal gains for violating the merchant management regulations and the payment account management regulations240,000 yuan, and a fine of 5.65 million yuan, with a total of 695 fines and confiscations240,000 yuan. At the same time, Hu Xiaoru, then senior sales manager of Yilian Pay, Lin Dongchao, assistant to the chairman, and Tan Weiqiang, chairman of the board, were fined 70,000 yuan, 70,000 yuan and 500,000 yuan respectively.
In response to the above-mentioned penalties, Wang Pengbo, a senior analyst in the financial industry at Broadcom Analysis, said that from the perspective of the amount of fines and confiscations, the amount of fines is relatively large, especially the two fines of 10 million yuan, indicating that the nature of the relevant institutions' violations is particularly serious, and the lack of anti-money laundering and merchant management is still the hardest hit area of punishment. At the same time, the People's Bank of China strictly supervises the payment industry, and double penalties will also become one of the main characteristics of subsequent payment institutions.
Regarding the specific matters of the above-mentioned institutions being fined and the current degree of rectification, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily sent an interview letter to the corresponding institutions, but did not receive a response as of press time.
According to the information disclosed on the official website of the People's Bank of China, the previous license types of Guangdong Hui Card and Xinhui E-commerce were both bank card acquiring, of which Guangdong Huika covered Guangdong Province, and Xinhui E-commerce business covered Guangdong Province and Fujian Province. The business scope of Yilian Pay is Internet payment (nationwide), mobile ** payment (nationwide), prepaid card issuance and acceptance (Guangdong), and UnionPay network business scope Internet payment (nationwide), prepaid card acceptance (nationwide), bank card acquiring (Guangdong Province).
It should be noted that Xinhui e-commerce has been excluded from the ranks of payment institutions, and in July 2023, the People's Bank of China made a decision to "not renew" Xinhui e-commerce. In the renewal of Guangdong Huika in early 2023, the renewal work was suspended by the People's Bank of China. At the same time, Guangdong Huika and Xinhui E-commerce were both involved in cybercrime activities earlier and were reported as part of money laundering.
For example, the Cyber Security Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security disclosed in November 2023 that between 2020 and 2022, among the fund transfer business of Xinhui e-commerce, there were many cases where the suspected transfer of illegal funds was investigated by various localities, with a transaction volume of 9.5 billion yuan of merchant funds, 2.63 million payment funds, and more than 120 bank cards involved in the case.
Wang Pengbo pointed out that even the suspended Guangdong remittance card and the cancelled Xinhui e-commerce company could not avoid being punished by the People's Bank of China, which once again demonstrated the importance of compliance in the payment industry. Especially after the issuance of new regulatory requirements, payment institutions must attach great importance to compliance construction if they want to operate for a long time. It is recommended that payment institutions use digital means to strengthen the management of merchants and transactions and improve the efficiency of risk control.