Nearly 100 million small and micro business owners in China use individual QR codes on Alipay and WeChat Pay to handle their payments, according to investment bank China International Capital Corp. The value of transactions made through QR codes - both merchant and personal - hit 11 trillion yuan in the period, accounting for about 15.4% of the total, the report showed. The October regulations were more recently in the news late last November when speculation swirled that they would force businesses to stop accepting payment via Alipay and WeChat Pay quick response (QR) codes all together.Īlthough the rumors were unfounded, the hand-wringing highlights the stakes of fiddling with China’s nonbank mobile payment market, which handled transactions worth 71.2 trillion yuan ($11.2 trillion) in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to a report by consulting firm iResearch. But as these businesses have grown, regulators since last year have tightened restrictions on the fintech sector to check risks to the financial system. Until recently, regulators largely turned a blind eye to internet giants’ rapidly developing financial businesses as government policy was focused on boosting innovation. The new rules come as the government tightens oversight on the country’s fintech sector. In the PBOC’s own words, the regulations, set to take effect March 1, aim to clearly distinguish between business and personal transactions on the platforms in an effort to prevent financial crimes like cross-border gambling. Instead, the central bank wants all businesses to use more tightly regulated accounts that feature merchant barcodes, which the platforms use to facilitate transactions between businesses and their customers. New regulations released by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) in October bar businesses from using barcodes generated by personal accounts on these platforms to take money from their customers. When reporters asked why the administration was only taking these steps now with the Trump presidency down to its final two weeks, one official said the executive action should have probably been taken years ago, “but better late than never.” The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the executive action publicly.There’s no shortage of folksy sayings that warn about the danger of mixing business and personal matters, and that’s the message China’s financial regulators want the hundreds of millions of users of mobile payment platforms like Alipay and WeChat Pay to take to heart. They described the apps as instruments for a communist government bent on “digital totalitarianism.” ![]() Senior Trump administration officials indicated they hadn’t consulted with the president-elect’s team before issuing the latest effort to ban more China apps. However, economists and political analysts foresee few big changes due to widespread frustration with Beijing’s trade and human rights record and accusations of spying and technology theft.īut dealing with the fallout from Trump’s latest shot at China could still create more headaches for Biden on top of the ongoing efforts to fight a worsening pandemic after he takes office. Political analysts expect Biden to try to resume cooperation with Beijing on issues such as climate change and the coronavirus. federal databases and the credit agency Equifax, and the Chinese government strictly limits what U.S. ![]() stock market, blocked mergers involving Chinese companies and stifled the business of Chinese firms like Huawei, a maker of phones and telecom equipment.Ĭhina-backed hackers, meanwhile, have been blamed for data breaches of U.S. Over the past several years, it has lashed out at China with tariffs that have sometimes roiled the U.S. The order marks the Trump administration’s latest attempt to hobble China, a rising economic superpower. Trump’s order cites unspecified concerns about the apps collecting Americans’ personal and financial information and turning it over to China’s communist government. The others named in the order are CamScanner, QQ Wallet, SHAREit, Tencent QQ, VMate and WPS Office. WeChat Pay is a rival service operated by tech giant Tencent. ![]() ![]() Alipay is a widely used digital wallet that is part of the empire of e-commerce billionaire and Ant Group founder Jack Ma.
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