Despite the continued decline in the number of licences, the payments market operated smoothly.
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) announced the renewal results of the fourth batch of non-bank payment institutions' licenses on its official website recently.
52 institutions, including Suning Yifubao (Chinese:易付宝), DiDi Pay and V-Pal, were successfully renewed for another five years, 8 payment institutions had their renewal applications suspended and 19 institutions' licenses were cancelled.
Some industry practitioners said that the main influencing factor for payment licence renewal is the ability and level of compliance. Institutions that have failed to meet the requirements or have received multiple fines previously are more vulnerable to downside risks.
It is noteworthy that most of the non-renewed third-party payment companies mentioned above include prepaid cards as one of their businesses, as "it is hard to find a profitable business model", said Su Xiaorui, a senior analyst at Analysys. “It is expected to see more prepaid cards firms quit in the future.”
Despite the reduction in the total number of payment licenses renewed, the continuous refinement of regulatory measures has also raised the entry barrier for the payment industry, which will benefit the development of the industry in the long run and will also strongly support innovation in the payment industry.