Following the decision of the Central Bank to renew the licenses of the first two batches of non bank payment institutions issued in August and September this year, the Central Bank released the results of the renewal of the third batch of payment licenses on December 20, among which 52 companies successfully renewed their licenses, one company did not renew its licenses, and two companies were merged. This continues the previous attitude of the central bank, that is, to tighten the payment license. Industry insiders believe that under this trend, the value of existing licenses will become higher and higher.
The third batch of license renewal of 52 enterprises
According to the announcement issued by the People's Bank of China on December 20, 52 companies, including Tianyi E-commerce Co., Ltd., Unicom Payment Co., Ltd., China Mobile E-commerce Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Dianbaiqu Information Technology Co., Ltd., have successfully renewed their licenses for five years from December 22, 2016 to December 21, 2021.
However, Shanghai Tongka Investment Management Co., Ltd. was not renewed this time due to the non renewal situation specified in Article 6 of the Notice of the People's Bank of China on Renewal of Payment Business License. According to the notice, Article 6 stipulates "deliberately circumventing regulatory requirements by means of forging, altering, hiding data, or maliciously refusing or obstructing inspection and supervision".
In addition, the business licenses of two payment institutions were merged. One is the payment business of Hainan Island All in One Card Payment Network Co., Ltd., which will be merged to Guofubao Information Technology Co., Ltd; The other is the payment business of Wenzhou Zhimin Information Service Co., Ltd., which will be merged with Shanghai Dianbaiqu Information Technology Co., Ltd. The People's Bank of China required that the undertaking of relevant payment business should be completed before June 21, 2017.
Up to now, of the 270 payment business licenses issued by the Central Bank, 4 have been cancelled, including Guangdong Yimin, Zhejiang Yishi, Shanghai Changgou and Beijing Runjing. 10 have been merged in three renewals, and only 256 payment licenses remain in the market.
Supervision continues "cold face"
Since the beginning of this year, the central bank has repeatedly attacked the supervision and rectification of third-party payment institutions. The intensive policy release and the continuous voice of rectification, punishment, and standardization have all demonstrated the determination of the regulators to regulate the payment industry.
In addition to the cancellation, merger and non renewal of some payment licenses, the "cold face" of the central bank is also reflected in the narrowing of some institutional payment businesses. Among the 52 licenses that were renewed this time, the business scope of two companies was reduced.
One is to order Modern Financial Holding (Chengdu) Co., Ltd. to stop the bank card acquiring business in Jilin and Qingdao provinces (cities) according to the Notification of the People's Bank of China on the Spot Check of Bank Card Acquiring Outsourcing Business; The other is to order Shanghai Deyi Network Technology Co., Ltd. to stop the bank card acquiring business in Anhui and Qinghai provinces according to the Notification of the People's Bank of China on the Spot Check of Bank Card Acquiring Outsourcing Business.
In fact, in the first two batches of renewal decisions, some payment institutions were reduced in their business scope due to serious violations, business stagnation and shrinking. Huang Zhen, director of the Institute of Financial Law of the Central University of Finance and Economics, said that it can be seen that the central bank is still tightening its supervision, and the regulatory authorities are still strengthening their efforts to check and regulate the payment industry.
The pattern of survival of the fittest in the industry has intensified
After the business of some third-party payment institutions has been "off", there are also a number of institutions with sound development, and the type and scope of licensed business have been maintained and continuously expanded. In this renewal decision, Shanghai Dianbaiqu Information Technology Co., Ltd. and Guofubao Information Technology Co., Ltd. have increased the issuance and acceptance of prepaid cards in different provinces. Previously, the business types and scope of third-party payment enterprises such as Alipay and Lakala have also been expanded. The pattern of survival of the fittest in the industry has become increasingly significant. Some insiders also said that the third party payment market actually doomed the winner who entered the market first from the very beginning.
Moreover, as the Central Bank clearly stated that it would not approve the establishment of new institutions in principle for a period of time in the future, many "laymen" turned to purchase and other ways to enter the payment field.
In August this year, Evergrande Group completed the acquisition of Guangxi Collective Pay at a high price of 570 million yuan, and indirectly obtained a third-party payment license. This is just an example of the M&A force. It is reported that a "full license" quotation in the market covering the whole country has increased from 200 million to 300 million yuan in 2015 to about 500 million yuan, almost doubling the price in just one year. Li Yaodong, director of Zero One Financial Research, believes that the value of the payment license may become higher and higher in the future, mainly because the people who want to come in are no longer able to get in, and they can only enter the market by acquiring existing licenses.
