Central Bank Halt Virtual Credit Card

Last Friday, Central Bank Suspension of the virtual credit card and barcode (two-dimensional code) payment of heavy news alerted the bank and the third party payment industry. However, judging from the latest reaction of the parties, the banking industry is not pessimistic about the launch of the virtual credit card, and the third party payment is also actively communicating with the regulators.

Insiders believe that the ultimate attitude of the central bank will affect the pattern of the bank credit card market and the offline payment market, and the game of different interest groups has entered the most critical link.

　 Affected companies

Active communication with regulators

A few days ago, the central bank issued documents to suspend the virtual credit card products between CITIC Bank and Alipay and Tencent respectively. Meanwhile, it also suspended the online payment service such as Alipay and Fu Tong's bar code payment and two-dimensional code payment and other offline O2O services. Affected by the news, CITIC Bank's stock price plunged on Friday, and the suspension was temporary in the afternoon. It is understood that the central bank's move will directly affect two major businesses: first, the virtual credit card between CITIC Bank and the third party payment; two is the bar code and two-dimensional code payment that Alipay and Cai Fu Tong (WeChat payment) are pushing in recent years. The Securities Times reporter contacted the two business stakeholders for the first time.

For the virtual credit card business, CITIC Bank Credit Card Center sources said the head office of the CITIC Bank has specifically assigned the management to explain to the Central Bank of the risks of virtual credit card cooperation, customer identification and customer information security.

On Sunday night, CITIC Bank issued a clarification announcement that WeChat's joint credit card and CITIC Taobao dissimilarity payment joint credit card two financial products are in the testing stage, and have not yet been on-line.

As for partner Alipay, the reply of relevant personages is that it has reported and communicated to the central bank, and will submit relevant materials according to regulatory requirements.

At present, the central bank pointed out in the relevant documents that "virtual credit card has broken through the existing business mode, and has yet to be studied in implementing customer identification obligations and protecting customer information security". Therefore, the contents of the reports of the banks and the third party payment to regulators are mainly customer identification and customer information security. Unexpectedly, other bank credit card reporters interviewed by reporters were not pessimistic about the matter.

Reporters learned last week that Minsheng Bank and Alipay were also planning virtual credit cards, which were suspended for business. The later appeared "not to wade in the boat to change the sails". Minsheng Bank official said that the bank and Ali will continue to cooperate on the credit card business in accordance with the cooperation agreement signed in September 16th last year, but "the form and content of the cooperation must follow the latest regulatory requirements".

The credit card center of another joint-stock bank said that the central bank stopped the virtual credit card, which meant "winning the time" for other banks that were brewing the business. The first "eating crab" CITIC Bank was out of commission, but other banks could use this time to pay close attention to the regulatory trend, try to figure out the bottom line of supervision, while combing the internal process and making preparations for the product, "when the policy is clear, it will not be passive."

Bank of China Network Analyst Huaming said that although the virtual credit card is the trend of future development, but it needs time to improve. This central bank's stop is mainly due to safety and risk, and it is necessary for the relevant parties to come up with a more feasible security system.

Hua Ming believes that at present, each bank's Credit Card Center has its own credit scoring system. The evaluation involves all aspects of the applicant. The approval process is very professional and rigorous. However, even if the banks are so strict with the approval of the "real" credit card, the annual credit card overdue rate is not optimistic. Then, the risk of the virtual credit card with fast examination speed and less application data is obviously higher. This may be the logic behind the regulatory halt.

　 Third party line expansion blocked

The business suspended by the central bank also includes the bar code payment and the two-dimensional code payment recently promoted by Alipay and Cai Fu Tong (WeChat payment). Reporters learned that the suspension of the virtual credit card mainly affected the related business of banks, and the suspension of bar code and two-dimensional code payment would have greater impact on Alipay and Fu Fu Tong, who were eager to expand the payment market under the line.

Take Alipay as an example. Since the launch of the second generation of bar code payment at the end of last year, the payment method has been attracting more and more attention because of its new style and convenience. clothing Retail brands, hypermarkets, convenience stores and supermarkets and other businesses signed a cooperation agreement with them. If the business is suspended for a long time, it will be affected not only by the cooperation with the above merchants, but also from Alipay's online payment to offline payment strategy and even the Alibaba group's mobile e-commerce strategy. Similarly, the two-dimensional code payment is also a weapon for Tencent's fortune paid and WeChat payment under the retail market.

Last week, 7-ELEVEN southern China company, which jointly launched the bar code payment with Alipay, told reporters that the company is paying close attention to changes in the situation and will strengthen communication with Alipay. In addition, Alipay and Giordano stakeholders also expressed concern about media coverage and kept a high level of concern about the incident.

It is understood that the reason why the central bank stopped the related businesses was because they had received some counterfeit two-dimensional codes, and through the Trojan horse software to acquire customer funds for fraud complaints. More importantly, the launch of the above products had not been reported to the central bank in advance.

However, the reporter learned from a senior third party payment who did not want to be named. Alipay's so-called "bar code payment" is actually different from the "two-dimensional code payment". The principle is to convert user's Alipay account information into visual barcode, so that cashiers can identify and deduct money with sweeping code guns, and account security is completely in the hands of users.

"Alipay and Tencent have high expectations for these payment businesses. The two companies have different goals, so they may be more cautious in dealing with regulators and even their competitors in the future." The above third party payment personage said.

　　 Interest game

Enter the key link

It is worth noting that after the central bank suspended the barcode and the two-dimensional code payment business, the China UnionPay, which had previously paid interest disputes with the third parties, immediately fell to the cusp of public opinion, and quite dramatically, the market tendency to interpret the central bank's move is beneficial to the UnionPay. Therefore, the related stocks in March 14th were all upside down in the intraday market. However, for the "UnionPay intervention in the central bank's decision to curb competitors" rumors, the company's stakeholders explicitly denied it, and once again stressed that "UnionPay is willing to carry out equal cooperation with all market players". In addition, experts from the UnionPay side agreed with the relevant initiatives of the central bank. They believed that the bar code payment and the two-dimensional code payment had risks, while at the same time, they had some impact on the part of the acquirers and formed an unfair competition pattern.

Guo Tianyong, director of the China banking research center of Central University of Finance and Economics, said that although the innovation payment has facilitated the consumers, the regulatory authorities are more concerned about how to prevent risks. He also believes that when regulators supervise the Internet financial products, they should find a balance between the risk of innovation and the interests of consumers. If we emphasize the risk too much, we will stifle financial innovation.

The former senior third party payment told reporters that with the communication between the relevant parties and the central bank, the expected outcome of this week is expected to be the quickest this week. The ultimate attitude of the central bank will affect the pattern of the whole bank credit card market and the offline payment market, and the game of different interest groups will enter the key link.

In March 11th, Alibaba and Tencent almost announced that they would launch "virtual credit cards" respectively. Among them, the Internet credit card launched by Alipay joint CITIC Bank will be launched online in Alipay wallet in the following week, while WeChat credit card, which was co operated by Tencent and CITIC Bank, has entered the internal test.

According to the introduction, the "virtual credit card" mode is completely different from the issuing and issuing of credit cards under the offline banking system. Users can apply online and get instant approval without any traditional cumbersome procedures. In addition, Alipay and WeChat have recently launched their own "bar code payment" and "two-dimensional code" payment, and are widely used in offline retail business expansion.

In March 14th, the central bank confirmed that it had issued a document calling for a moratorium on virtual reality. Credit Card Business and bar code (two-dimensional code) payment business. Zhou Jinhuang, deputy director of the central bank's payment and settlement division, told the media on the same day that the central bank had no knowledge of Alipay and Cai Fu Tong for issuing virtual credit cards to the public. The two companies did not report to the central bank in advance, and stressed that the move was intended to regulate the development of relevant businesses and protect the rights and interests of consumers, including innovative services such as two-dimensional code payment and virtual credit cards, involving many new technologies, new processes and new identification technologies. But Zhou Jinhuang emphasized that this is a "suspension" rather than a market rumor.