The mobile payment industry has been exciting this week, with many important events happening one after another.
The first is the personnel change of the central bank. Xue Jianfeng has served as Party Committee Secretary and President of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Branch of the People’s Bank of China, and Director of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Branch of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.
He has extensive experience in the central bank system and has held many important positions.
In terms of payment institutions, changes in registered capital, directors, senior supervisors and other personnel adjustments of four payment institutions including Yipay, PayEasy, Lakala and Shupay were approved.
Capital increase has become the main theme of the industry, which is related to the increase in relevant regulations on the registered capital requirements of payment institutions.
At the policy level, six departments including the Cyberspace Administration of China and the People’s Bank of China jointly issued the “Guidelines for Classification and Grading of Financial Information Service Data”, which classified financial information service data in detail.
In terms of corporate news, Canadian payment service provider Nuvei is entering into in-depth acquisition negotiations with cross-border payment company Payoneer. The transaction price is approximately US$2.7 billion, but there are still variables.
There are also new requirements for payment of elderly care services. Relevant departments in Shanghai issued a notice to encourage commercial banks and non-bank payment institutions to optimize payment settlement plans and reduce or exempt handling fees based on the characteristics of the elderly.
The blocking order issued by the Ministry of Commerce will have an impact on the payment industry and will change the risk control and operational logic of the payment industry.
The Tibet Autonomous Region Branch of the People’s Bank of China held a work meeting on production safety in the payment field and required efforts to prevent and resolve payment risks, including ensuring the security of the payment system, preventing telecommunications network fraud, organizing emergency drills, and handling complaints and reports.
In terms of technological innovation, WeChat Pay is testing the “AI exclusive card” internally, and is testing AI payment capabilities in conjunction with WorkBuddy and others; Kimi has launched the world’s first AI-native credit card, providing benefits such as computing power feedback and early access to new models; Mastercard has released the latest AI smart payment service AP4M, with many first batch partners.
However, some companies are facing difficulties.
Global payment giant Worldpay was fined for being involved in a foreign exchange investment fraud case, NetEase Pay was “double fined” for multiple violations, and British cross-border payment company EES was taken over for being involved in major money laundering risks.
International cooperation is also constantly advancing. Ant International cooperates with Latin American financial technology companies to develop digital wallet Mi Clip to provide technical support and risk control capabilities; Mastercard participates in Euro TIPS atomic settlement.
In addition, Ant International is rumored to have raised US$1 billion to pave the way for an IPO, Indian financial technology and payment service provider Pine Labs announced its transformation, South Korea’s three major payment platforms have experienced failures one after another, and European B2B trade and payment are also exploring the application of AI.
In short, this week the mobile payment industry has made important progress in personnel, policy, enterprise, technology and other aspects. The future development of the industry deserves continued attention.
