A Study On The Regulation System Of Third-party Electronic Payment Service

On February 18,,2016, Apple Pay, a new smartphone-based payment system developed by Apple Inc, launched out into the Chinese electronic payment market,which started a new round of competitions among other third-party electronic payment systems like Alipay and Tenpay. Traditional banks acquiring service, the credit card payment, has been upgraded into the “NFC + fingerprint” signature payment. It subverted the original credit card acquiring service and stirred a widespread academic discussion from the beginning. Therefore, with the development of electronic commerce and the demands for faster transactions, the upgradation and convenience of payment service is becoming the focus of customers’ needs and enterprise competitions. Payment, which connects transactions and currency flows, is widely used in financial activities. The development of the Internet information technology has created a new form of industry, which subverts the relationship of payment among traditional producers, sellers and consumers. With the birth of Alipay in 2004, the third-party electronic payment began to appear in front of people. By promoting its applications, enhancing customer stickiness, and cultivating habits of electronic payment,it continues to seize the Chinese payment market;from online to offline payment, from remote to near-field payment, from full to credit payment,it changes the operation mode of national payment and people’s living habits. These new non-financial institutions which provide payment service for customers through the Internet, mobile terminals and other electronic means are called “third-party electronic payment institutions.”With the continued expansion of business scope of third-party electronic payment, payment method and tools keep innovating, making the market competitions fiercer. Disorderly competitions in the market, the regulation of the payment institution qualifications and customer’s provisions, the increasing risks of money laundering and other potential risks should arouse the attentions of relevant authorities. In September 2010, “Measures for the Administration of Payment Services for Non-Financial Institutions”(hereinafter referred to as the “2010 Administrative Measures”) was issued by the central bank to bring the third-party payment under regulation and establish the market-entry conditions for third-party electronic payment institutions. On February 7, 2013, the central bank enacted “Measures for the Custody of Clients’ Reserves of Payment Institutions” to stipulate the rules of the storage, accumulation, usage and transfer of consumer’s provisions received in advance by third-party electronic payment institutions. In July 2015, 10 departments including the central bank, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued “Several Opinions on Promoting the Healthy Development of Internet Finance”(hereinafter referred to as the “Opinions on Healthy Development of Internet Finance”), once again declaring the central bank as the supervisor for the third-party payment institutions. On December 28, 2015, the central bank issued another document called “Administrative Measures for the Online Payment Business of Non-Banking Payment Institutions”(hereinafter referred to as the “2015 Administrative Measures”), which make further improvement on the legal system of the supervision of the third-party electronic payment and make further explanations of the management of customers, service, risks, the protection of customers’ interests and other aspects of the third-party electronic payment institutions. The aforementioned laws and relevant rules for the implementation basically set the legal framework of and laid a legal basis for the proper development of the third-party electronic payment service in our country. However, in contrast with the European Union and the United States, where third-party payment service developed earlier, the relevant legal supervision system of the third-party electronic payment service in our country still has its shortcomings, such as strict conditions for the market entry of the third-party electronic payment service, imperfect fund depository of platform clients, oversimplified and over-standardized rules for anti-money laundering. Imperfect specifications will, no doubt, affect the prevention and control of risks. It will not only make direct effects on the interests of consumers, but also cause impacts on the stability of the national financial system. Therefore, it’s of great importance for the development of the third-party electronic payment service to improve the laws and regulations of the third-party electronic payment service supervision and strengthen the guidance and management.This paper is divided into four parts: The first part describes the overview of the third-party electronic payment, summarizes the definition, mode, motivations, characteristics of development, analyzes the legal relationship in the third-party electronic payment. The second part mainly introduces the legislation and regulation of the third-party electronic payment, and makes an analysis of the main problems within it. The third part focuses, from the perspective of foreign legislation, mainly on the US and the EU’s legislation and legal supervision system and illustrates the main features of the supervision system. The fourth part, on the basis of the former three parts, makes suggestions on clarifying supervision principles, transforming supervisory methods, improving the supervision system, and promoting international coordination of supervision. It gives us a specific exposition, combined with our current legal system, on the rules of market entry, the supervision of customer fund and anti-money laundering.