Our reporter Li Hui reports from Beijing.
The official implementation period of the Notice of the People’s Bank of China on Strengthening the Management of Payment Acceptance Terminals and Related Services (hereinafter referred to as "Document No.259") is approaching on March 1, and the concern and wrestling about "personal payment code" is facing a key "falling hammer".
On the evening of February 22nd, China Payment and Clearing Association (hereinafter referred to as "the Association") announced that in order to provide more accurate and convenient payment services, a new "personal business receipt code" was set up, which users can freely choose to use. Users can use the "personal business receipt code", with the same service and experience, and the code assignment process is free, and they can enjoy more efficient transaction reconciliation and other services. The current "personal collection code" is not closed, not used, and its function remains unchanged.
The above announcement decisively responded to a series of market misunderstandings and concerns about the "invalidation" of personal payment codes and the possible "rising operating costs of small and micro businesses" for some time.
A person close to the regulator recently explained to the reporter of China Business News that the policy goal of Circular 259 focuses on three aspects-anti-gambling and anti-fraud, fair competition and payment security, with the aim of solving reasonable demand and blocking illegal demand, and the policy has no impact on small and micro businesses that are operating normally.
Market misleading, frequent supervision, final decision
The regulatory requirements for payment codes come from the regulation in No.259 published in October last year: for individuals with obvious characteristics of business activities, the bar code payment and payment service agency shall provide them with the payment bar code of special merchants, and refer to the relevant management regulations of special merchants, and shall not provide them with payment services related to business activities through the personal payment bar code.
According to the latest announcement of the association, the implementation requirements have become "free choice and use".
In fact, the requirement of payment code is only one of many specifications in Circular 259, but its relevant provisions have aroused two waves of public opinion since the end of last year. Before, some media exposed that the "personal payment code" could not be used, it rushed to the hot search, and then rumors of tax payment triggered market fluctuations, which posed great challenges to both regulators and market institutions.
Mu Chu, editor-in-chief of mobile payment network, believes that bar code upgrade will indeed bring many tests to the market-at the business level, it puts forward new requirements for its own service capabilities such as front-end customer service and back-end technology; At the level of horizontal competition, with the time pressure of payment code expiration, merchants turn to actively seek services, and some agents are misleading for competition; In addition, the payment industry is reducing fees and benefiting the people, and whether the personal code is converted into a merchant code will lead to a certain degree of cost increase under the purpose of ensuring compliance has attracted market attention.
Since the end of last year, many small and micro businesses have encountered service agents who come to sell and replace the "receipt code". "Many of these agents said that our personal collection code could not be used on March 1 and must be replaced. If we don’t change it, we will encounter a lot of troubles in the later collection and may have to face a fine for paying taxes." A community supermarket owner told reporters.
In addition, according to the reporter’s understanding, in the past three months, the use of this policy by individual listed companies to promote favorable opportunities for "market value management" has also attracted regulatory attention.
A large number of C-end merchants can’t understand the policy, and individual institutions and agents rely on the policy for personal gain, which also makes the essence of "personal collection code" upgrade start to deviate.
"Some market actions have deviated from the original intention of Circular 259, and policies tend to be misunderstood or even used by individual market institutions, which is also an important background for the announcement of the pre-node association on March 1." A payment institution executive bluntly told reporters.
In fact, Circular 259 is a regulatory norm for the entire payment terminal industry, and it is the first time that barcode payment (that is, two-dimensional code payment) terminals are brought into standardized management. In recent years, bar code payment has brought some problems, such as facilitating the circulation of funds in black and gray industries such as cross-border gambling, confusing the transaction background and payment business attributes, causing distortion of transaction information and payment data, and difficulty in tracing the capital chain, which has harmed the interests of the people and affected the safety of payment, among which "gambling" is undoubtedly the biggest risk.
According to the drafting instructions when Circular No.259 was issued, the classification measures to divide personal collection codes into personal codes and business codes are intended to guide personal collection barcodes to return to the origin of personal small-sum transfer business without real commodity or service transaction background. It not only prevents the personal collection bar code from being used for illegal purposes, but also improves the payment service level for personal business activities by bringing individual operators into the management of special merchants.
"From the latest announcement, the association has sought a balance between market development and supervision, giving priority to the inclusiveness and convenience of collection barcodes, which is in line with the central bank’s prudent supervision thinking and helps to eliminate market noise." Wang Pengbo, a senior analyst in the financial industry of Broadcom Consulting, told reporters.
Institutional implementation is gradual.
According to the reporter’s understanding, the Payment and Clearing Association has conducted a lot of market research on the criteria of "obvious business characteristics", and also consulted and collected relevant opinions including Alipay, Tenpay, a number of acquiring institutions and head aggregation payment service providers. Considering the smooth transition of the market, the specific relevant standards will be gradually promoted through internal communication with institutions and window guidance.
A number of payment institutions revealed to reporters: For the standard, a preliminary consensus reached before is that individual businesses with 2,000 transactions within three months and a total annual collection of more than 800,000 yuan need to change their personal collection codes to personal business collection codes in principle.
However, the industry consensus is that, in combination with the latest announcement of the Association on the evening of the 22nd, more consideration should be given to the accuracy of market implementation of policies and the protection of the interests of small and micro businesses, and upgrading should be encouraged rather than compulsory, so the pace and methods of institutional promotion will also change.
In addition, because the two requirements met by the above-mentioned internal standards are "and", many people in the industry told reporters that the groups that have substantial influence are not large in themselves and the proportion is very low.
After the announcement of the association, the two major payment head institutions, WeChat Pay and Alipay, immediately issued an announcement to further clarify that the "personal receipt code" can continue to be used. On this premise, they encouraged voluntary upgrading of the "personal business receipt code" and disclosed a series of upgrading rights and interests to stabilize merchants and the market.
Some authoritative sources pointed out that the "personal business receipt code" can be used for individuals who have not registered for industry and commerce, so that they can obtain better payment services more accurately and conveniently. For example, personal business receipt code can accept credit card payment, which is conducive to expanding customers. In addition, you can also get value-added services such as account management, transaction reconciliation and specific marketing. Payment institutions can develop more service options on the premise of fair competition. On the other hand, the personal business receipt code can better prevent and control transaction risks, more effectively protect the safety of users’ funds and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, individual merchants and small and micro enterprises. If the payment institution manages it as a merchant, the transaction information will be more accurate, and once a dispute occurs, the rights can be better and faster.
Many market participants believe that this move is conducive to promoting the smooth transition and implementation of Circular 259.
Regarding which market entities are good or bad in Circular 259, the institutions in the industry have always tended to talk to themselves because of their different positions. After the final decision of supervision, the phenomenon of using the policy window period and interpretation space to stimulate the development of the industry is also expected to be attributed to rationality.
For some time, acquiring institutions and small and medium-sized banks have tried their best to seize the landing window of Document No.259 to promote their own collection codes. The reporter noticed that some merchants who usually only send blessing messages serve WeChat official account, and since this year, they have intensively pushed marketing content related to aggregation codes. City commercial banks, rural commercial banks and even rural banks with a large number of account opening needs frequently send short messages to customers to promote their payment codes and give them a lot of subsidies.
An Internet banking scene operator bluntly told reporters: Policy changes will not increase the total income, and the income will inevitably be the redistribution of stocks. But will banks subsidize the merchants instigated by the two giants indefinitely? Switching channels will eventually use market means to compare costs and services. Instead of a lot of resources to sink the market, it is better to go up, do industry, do data finance, do accounts, do platform traffic, and do digital business operations.
Wang Pengbo also tends to think that there are no corresponding incremental merchants in the market that relevant institutions have been emphasizing before, and all policies are also managing the stock market. Therefore, it is expected that it will not have much impact on the entire QR code acquiring industry chain.
(Editor: He Shasha Proofreading: Peng Yufeng)
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