On Jan.7, 2016, the third-party payment license of Shanghai Changgou Co. Ltd was revoked by the People's Bank of China (PBOC) and the criminal evidence of those responsible was handed over to the judicial organs.

Shanghai Changgou was awarded the third-party payment license in August 2011 and since then, it has been engaging in the prepaid card issuance and acceptance business and providing on-line payment service, according to the investigation.

The close of Shanghai Changgou comes at a time when the authorities are tightening regulations of the booming Internet finance.

Neither the third-party payment platforms such as the Shanghai Changgou nor the peer to peer (P2P) or crowfunding platforms could be immune from risks.

According to the Palm, a research institute on Internet finance, China saw 194 problematic P2P lending platforms in the first quarter of 2015.

On Apr. 28, 2015, 11 government departments including the Ministry of Public Security, the PBOC and the Securities Regulatory Commission joined their efforts to crack down on the illegal fund-raising activities on the P2P platforms.

Data show that as of the end of November 2015, 249 crowdfunding platforms had been established in China through which over 8 million people invested more than 8.8 billion yuan. However, China has never passed laws or regulations on the equity-based crowd funding.

On July 18, 2015, More than 10 government departments including the PBOC released Guidelines for Promoting Healthy Development of Internet Finance, a "basic law" in the Internet finance sector, a token that the Internet finance has been brought under supervision.

The guideline makes the rules in every Internet finance activities and defines the supervision responsibilities of the government organs involved over the main businesses in Internet finance, proving that the supervision systems in the Internet finance sector has been improved gradually.

On July 27, 2015, China released the Interim Measures for the Supervision of the Internet Insurance Business, the first document on the Internet finance sector since the Guidelines for Promoting Healthy Development of Internet Finance was released.

On Dec. 28, 2015, the Interim Administrative Measures for the Business Activities of P2P Lending Information Intermediaries (Draft for Comment) was released. 

Thus, the main businesses of the Internet finance such as on-line payment, crowfunding, Internet insurance and P2P lending platforms have got or will have the supervision rules.

The year of 2015 is a year of regulations for the Internet finance as the supervision of the businesses in the Internet finance has been enhanced, according to Yin Zhentao, Deputy Director of Law and Finance Office of the Institute of Finance and Banking of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He holds that compared with the traditional financial institutions, the supervision in the Internet finance is not so strict and more regulations are needed to close the supervision loopholes.