The central bank issued another 19 payment licenses

This reporter Zhong Hui

Intern reporter Mei Yaqi reported in Shenzhen

On the one hand, leading enterprises (Alipay and TenPay) expanded their business scope, while new forces joined and third-party payment continued to expand.

On July 10, the central bank issued the fifth batch of third-party payment licenses involving 19 enterprises in Guangdong, Beijing and Shandong. With the addition of the first batch of 250 enterprises, the central bank has issued a total of 269 licenses.

"The third-party payment service started from Alipay ten years ago. At present, the third-party payment industry in China is already in a state of saturation. Especially after the central bank issued the license for the first time in 2011 and was positioned as 'non-financial institution payment business', the third-party payment was received Name, with legal status, the number of companies applying for a license is more and more.In fact, many businesses do not have any basis in the business, may be to license plate. "A third-party payment company to 21st Century Business Herald Reporter said.

A person close to regulation believes that in principle, the central bank encourages third-party payment enterprises to initiate and set up, especially for private capital; but at present, the industry has formed a certain competitive landscape and the central bank is also moderately slowing down the issuance of new licenses The rhythm.

According to the reporter, the number of third-party licenses issued by the central bank in May 2011, August 2011, December 2011 and June 2012 was 27, 13, 61 and 95 respectively, no matter from The number of licensing or time interval, the licensing are more cautious.

Focus on internet payment

According to 21st Century Business Herald reporter statistics, the business of the third-party payment licenses issued this time mainly focuses on Internet payment and bank card receipt services. Of the 19 licensed enterprises, 13 were paid for Internet payment, 6 for bank card receipt and mobile phone payment, and issuance and acceptance of prepaid cards. Digital TV payment was 3 and 1 respectively.

In accordance with the central bank positioning, third-party payment aims to make up for the lack of bank payment system to promote the development of small, convenient payment; offline payment will still be dominated by the traditional bank card payment. In this context, the Internet payment has become the main direction of development of third-party payment.

The central bank said in March that Internet payment should insist on serving the development of e-commerce and providing the community with the purpose of small, quick and convenient micro-payment services.

According to iResearch data, the third-party payment transactions in 2013 were 17.2 trillion yuan, accounting for 59.9% and 31.2% of the total respectively. Off-line business still attached to the traditional bank card payment and UnionPay offline receipt system, the third-party payment belongs to the affiliated business; that is, third-party leading business is still the Internet payment.

"The traditional internet payment is dominated by e-commerce. With the rise of internet finance in 2013 and the huge potential for Internet financing, it may become a major growth driver for the future of internet payment business." A remittance chief of the world said to 21st Century Business Herald .

In fact, after Alipay, TenPay and others pay off the offline payment via two-dimensional code payment, the bank card acquiring business is also infiltrating the Internet.

Despite the two-dimensional code payment was suspended by the central bank, but Alipay, TenPay has laid out through the relevant partners offline merchants and acquiring systems. According to report, this acquisition of bank cards, mobile phone payment Shenzhen Music Brush Technology Co., Ltd. is the previous TenPay layout offline business agents. The reporter contacted Alipay, TenPay two-dimensional code payment cooperation agencies, there are still many are preparing to apply for third-party payment license.

"In fact, we have already begun to do this kind of business, but only get a third-party payment bank card to obtain a license to connect to the UnionPay's scoring system .We did not start preparations for the license in May this year, there is no filing, from Report prepared to be approved at least 1 year. "A TenPay two-dimensional code payment agents told reporters.

It is noteworthy that TenPay changed its license information on July 8, 2014 and changed its name from "Shenzhen TenPay Technology Co., Ltd." to "TenPay Payment Technology Co., Ltd."; and in the last year, 7 Month, for the layout of offline payment system, TenPay has changed the license information, a new bank card receipt business qualifications.

"Open to foreign investment" as a misunderstanding

It is worth noting that Beijing Chang Jie Tong Payment Technologies Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Chang Jie Tong Payment"), a licensed company, has been interpreted as "Chang Jie Tong" (01588.HK) because its parent company is a Hong Kong listed company "Third-party payment open to foreign capital," the regulatory direction.

"This is a misunderstanding.Financial security is a national strategic issue, third-party payment connected to the entire payment system, will not be easily open to foreign capital." The above regulators told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter said, "the central bank to third-party payment promoters And shareholders have censorship requirements, especially the final actual controller qualification. "

In fact, the definition of corporate foreign ownership is based on the place of business registration as a standard. Reporter inquiries business information was informed that Chanjet paid a registered capital of 100000000, of which Hong Kong listed company Chanjet invested 7510000, 75.1% stake, Chanjet's major shareholder and the main sponsor is UFIDA Limited Companies, Chanjet and UFIDA registered addresses are in Beijing, are Chinese-funded enterprises.

Article 8 of the Measures for the Administration of Payment Services Provided by Non-Financial Institutions (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures") stipulates that an applicant for "payment of a business license" must be a limited liability company or joint stock limited company legally established in China.

Information released by the central bank, Chanjet, shows that Beijing Chanjet Payment Technology Co., Ltd. does not exist outside investors through investment relationships, agreements or other arrangements that can actually dominate the company's behavior, nor does it exist through the agreement to make profits with foreign institutions Assigned circumstances.

Since Yahoo! Softbank holds a large stake in Alibaba, Alibaba Group shifted ownership of Alipay in 2011 to a company that has no direct stake in Alibaba Group in order to avoid the suspicion of "foreign investment" in order to obtain third-party payment licenses - Zhejiang Ali Baba, the company controlled by Ma, cleared the major foreign shareholders.

Another cause of concern is the award-winning enterprises in Beijing to help Alipay Network Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "help Alipay"). Business information, to help Alipay registered capital of 100 million, of which Beijing State Insurance Co., Ltd. State Insurance Company invested 95 million, accounting for 95%.

This reporter has learned that the State Insurance Industry Insurance Assessment for the 2007 CIRC approved the establishment of the insurance assessment company, approved the scope of its operation is the subject of insurance underwriting inspection, valuation and risk assessment of the subject of insurance after the accident investigation, inspection , Estimated losses and adjustments, and other businesses approved by the CIRC.

Although BOCI is not a financial institution that formally conducts insurance business, obtaining a third-party payment license also requires much attention as a licensed enterprise approved by the CIRC. The business types approved by Alipay are Internet payments and Payments for mobile phones also provide room for them to engage in Internet insurance business.