In the third-party payment field, new regulations will be added to the central bank to restructure the bank card acquiring market

New regulations are about to be added in the field of third-party payment with increasingly improved regulatory policies.

On December 5, I learned from a number of third-party payment companies that the central bank has issued a draft of the "Management Measures for Bank Card Acquiring Business" to third-party payment companies and commercial banks (hereinafter referred to as the "draft for soliciting opinions"), This is regarded by the industry as an important part of the regulatory policy in the field of third-party payments.

An industry insider said that the central bank has repeatedly consulted third-party payment companies on the regulations for the supervision of bank card receipts. "The draft of the consultation issued this time is stricter and more complete than in the past, and is close to finalization. It is expected to be very Publish soon. "

"One cabinet and one machine" intensifies industry competition

The solicitation draft stipulates that the acquiring institution will collect monetary funds for the special merchants through the acceptance terminal. In principle, the exclusive merchants can only sign contracts with one acquiring institution. For large-scale special merchants in star-rated hotels, department stores, they can sign contracts There are two acquiring institutions, but each cashier counter can only be equipped with one universal acceptance terminal.

The above regulations are summarized by the industry as "one household, one cabinet, one machine". Many interviewees regarded it as the most important provision in the consultation draft, and industry competition will intensify.

Analysys International data shows that from 2007 to 2010, the average growth rate of the number of POS devices deployed in China and the average growth rate of POS cross-bank transaction volume exceeded 40% and 59%, respectively. According to its forecast, the growth rate of these two items will remain above 35% in 2011.

With the rapid expansion of the scale of bank card acquiring business, third-party payment companies are stepping up their layout in this field. According to statistics, of the 40 companies that have obtained third-party payment licenses from the central bank, 15 companies are engaged in bank card acquiring business, accounting for almost half of the country.

Li Guangyu, vice president of Lakala, once said that the legal status given by the payment license will surely cause a round of outlet and terminal laying wars in the field of bank card acquisition. For related companies, the focus at this stage is not how to make profits, but to rapidly expand market share.

The aforementioned new regulations will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the industry pattern. Analyst Zhang Meng of Analysys International believes that compared with the current situation where an e-commerce enterprise in the Internet payment field often accesses multiple payment instruments, the "one household, one cabinet, one machine" rule will directly affect the number of customers of acquiring companies It has caused a greater test for the market expansion capabilities of acquiring companies.

UnionPay locks in inter-bank liquidation profits

The consultation draft stipulates that when the acquirer involves cross-legal agency transaction transfer and fund clearing, it should be directly carried out through the legal bank card clearing organization approved by the People's Bank of China. Acquiring institutions and outsourcing service institutions shall not engage in or disguise bank card inter-bank transaction transfer and clearing services.

Many people believe that this move means that UnionPay will lock in the stable profits brought by inter-bank clearing, and thus control the leading role of the bank card acquiring business. "If it is possible, we really want to build a liquidation platform by ourselves, and now it seems impossible." An industry source said.

Many people said that the profit of the bank card acquiring business mainly comes from the settlement fee. Depending on the industry, the rates vary from 0.5% to 4%. The handling fee share generally follows the ratio of 7: 2: 1. "7" belongs to the issuing bank; "2" belongs to the receiving party; "1" belongs to UnionPay.

It is worth noting that a considerable number of third-party acquirers have signed contracts with merchants in cooperation with banks. In essence, they are outsourcing businesses in the receiving market, so they cannot fully obtain 20% of the profits in the acquiring market. Share with commercial banks.

In this profit distribution chain, the profits of the card issuing bank and UnionPay are relatively fixed, and in order to compete for the market, the acquiring companies often take the initiative to lower the share ratio or even give up the share, so as to benefit the contracted merchants and banks. A person in charge of an acquiring company has said frankly that some subdivided business areas have almost no profit, and even operate at a loss, while other companies have similar situations. "At this stage, it is most important to be large-scale, and profit is secondary."

However, the consultation draft clearly stipulates that the acquiring institution shall not take vicious competitive actions such as reducing the bank card settlement fee rate regardless of cost, otherwise the central bank branch will order corrections within a time limit, and will give warnings, criticisms or punishment of more than 10,000 yuan depending on the circumstances A fine of less than 30,000 yuan.

Industry insiders said that if the above regulations are implemented, the status quo of "scale wars" and "rate wars" is expected to be eased, and SMEs in the industry will gain more room for development.

Prevent Credit Card Cash Out

In addition, this discussion draft also involves more sensitive credit card cash issues. The discussion draft stipulates that acquirers should require special merchants to accept bank cards based on the real background of goods and services transactions, and may not convert part or all of the credit card credit limit into funds for payment by fictitious transactions, fictitious opening prices, cash returns, etc. Cardholders are not allowed to engage in or assist in engaging in credit card practices.

The solicitation draft stipulates that the central bank and its branch agencies shall indulge and assist authorized merchants in fraudulent transactions, credit card cashing and other illegal activities. The central bank and its branches shall order them to make corrections and impose a fine of 30,000 yuan. Qualifications will even be ordered to suspend business.

In order to curb this kind of behavior, the solicitation draft proposes that the acquirer should establish a special merchant risk monitoring system to ensure that the real-time risk monitoring of the acquirer transaction is completed before the merchant's funds are settled. The suspicious transactions found should be checked immediately, and if necessary, conducted on-site verification.

Zhang Meng said that the relevant provisions of the consultation draft reflect the determination of the supervisory authorities to crack down on such gray behaviors, but the credit card application is more concealed. Without more specific detailed measures, the regulatory goals may be difficult to implement in the short term .