China’s new clearing house boosts online payment market

The Chinese characters in the pictures mean “the Online Settlement Platform for Non-Bank Payment Institutions”. Photo: People’s Daily Online

China’s online payment embarked on a new chapter as more than 20 third-party payment providers, including Alibaba’s AliPay and Tencent’s Tenpay, havecompleted their connections with a nationwide online clearing house newly established at the requirement of China’s central bank.

After the launch of the Online Settlement Platform for Non-Bank Payment Institutions, all of the country’s payment companies will work with a standard set of clearing protocols and rules.

Similar to an Internet version of UnionPay’s clearing service for bank-to-bank transactions, the platform was designed for payment transactions handled by third-party providers. The regulator launched it with the aim of tightening supervision of the country’s fast-growing online payment market.

According to a document issued in August by the People’s Bank of China, all banks and online payment systems must connect to the new platform by October 15 and be ready to route transactions through it starting June 30, 2018.

In the past, transactions from companies like Alipay and Tenpay were handled on different terms with banks, falling outside central bank oversight.

The decision came as Chinese users of online payment had exceeded 500 million and online payment transactions handled by non-bank institutions amounted to more than 100 trillion yuan ($15 trillion).

Putting an end to the current direct connection model, the new platform will also help with centralized management of provisions.

The online clearing house allows the central bank to track and monitor all capital flow of third-party payment providers, leaving fewer loopholes for money-laundering, bribery, tax evasion and other irregularities.

Thanks to the platform, more big data on clearing settlement will be collected by the central bank, and consumers’ payment costs are expected to be trimmed as well.

Analysts pointed out that the establishment of the platform not only indicates the Chinese government’s tightened oversight of the financial environment but also its endeavor for building a new credit system.

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The Chinese characters in the pictures mean “the Online Settlement Platform for Non-Bank Payment Institutions”.

Photo: People’s Daily Online

网联上线，中国网络支付呈现新秩序

人民日报记者强薇

中国现有5亿多人使用网络支付，非银行机构网络支付市场规模超过100万亿元人民币（约合15万亿美元）。这些支付以往由支付宝、微信、财付通等第三方支付机构直接同银行对接服务。为了加强金融监管，中国央行决定上线“网络版银联”，即线上支付统一清算平台，用以处理由非银行支付机构发起的、与银行交互的支付业务。

按照计划，明年6月30日起，支付机构受理涉及银行账户的网络支付业务必须全部通过网联平台处理。截至目前，已有支付宝、财付通等20多家第三方支付机构完成接入网联平台。中国的网络支付开启了新的一页。

图片来源：人民视觉

网联的建立，目的是切断第三方支付机构直连银行的清算模式，解决备付金集中管理难题。接入网联后，第三方支付机构将被严格监管，每笔转账都将纳入央行的管理，大大增加了洗钱、行贿、偷税漏税等违法行为的难度。此外，央行通过网联，将获得更多支付清算等金融大数据，消费者的使用成本也有望进一步降低。

有评论指出，网联的成立，不仅是中国政府出重拳净化金融环境的措施，也代表着中国建立新信用体系的努力。