Research Third-party Payment Mechanism For Consumer Financial Security Obligations

In recent years, with the rapid development of the online shopping and the rapid increase in trading volume, the payment way has also in constant progressed.From the traditional Internet banking payment to the present the third party payment,it can be said to be a great progress of online shopping payment,the third party payment with the convenience of the network is becoming the current payment universal.If a consumer wants to use the third party payment,he needs to sign a relevant service agreement with a third party payment institution and open an account firstly.The consumer can recharge on the account, he can also make payments on the account. According to the service agreement signed between the consumer and the third party payment institution,the consumer’s account is kept by the third party payment institution, namely the consumer is the owner of the funds in the account,not the third party payment insitution,so the insitution has the duty to protect the safety of the consumer’s funds on the account,and it has no right to use, transfer the consumers’ finance.But in real life, it often appears that the third party payment insitution use the consumer’s funds, take possession of the funds in the accounts, transfer funds interests... these are the hidden danger to the safety of consumer’s finance. It constitutes a great threat to the consumer’s financial security.The basic request of online shopping is to ensure a safety transaction environment.But with the rapid development of the third party payment,the harmful to consumers ’financial security has occurred at the same time,which caused my thinking on the third party payment insitutions’ obligation to protect the consumers’ financial security.This thesis is divided into three parts to discuss the obligation of the third party payment institution to protect the consumers’financial security.The first part starts from the development of the third party payment, then points out that consumers are in risks using the third party payment,including the third party payment institution use the consumer s’funds, take possession of the funds in the accounts, transfer funds interests and unable to protect the safety of the funds when it is out of the market etc..In the second part of the thesis, I discuss the theory evidences of the third party payment institution has obligations to guarantee the safety of the consumers’ funds. First, from the position of the third party payment institution, I think it is a non-bank financial institutions, it is different from a bank in its functions.The ownership of the funds is also different, therefore, the third party payment institution is different from a bank in protecting funds’ security; Secondly, from the third party payment institution’s legal relationship with consumers, there are relationships of storage contract and agency between them, so the ownership of the consumer’s funds does not transfer, the third party payment institutions must has the duty to guarantee the consumer’s funds, it can’t divert and take the possession of consumer’s finance; At last, from the Economic Law theory,the relationship in the the third party payment institution and consumers, consumers are in a vulnerable side, the principle of protecting the weak in Economic Law demands the third party payment institution to protect consumers’funds. In view of the threatened status of consumers’ funds, the third party payment institution has obligations to guarantee the safety of the consumers’funds.In the third part, I suggest:Regulators should perform their supervisory duties, improve the supervise to the third party payment institution,including the third party payment institution itself and its business; I have some advices combine with the current laws and the foreign supervision experiences in order to promote the protection of the third party payment institution to consumers’ financial security.