Some companies will not get third-party online payment licenses by the deadline of September 1， an expert told the Global Times Monday.
Application details of 32 companies applying for the third-party payment licenses were posted online by the Shanghai office of the People’s Bank of China (PBC) by Monday.
The deadline for obtaining the second batch of licenses is September 1， 2011， and the companies that are unable to get licenses by then will not be allowed to run payment business， according to the PBC.
The PBC awarded the first batch of licenses to 27 companies on May 26 this year， including Alipay.com， Tenpay.com， 99bill.com， Beijing Digital Wangfujing Technology Limited and Beijing Lakala Network Technology Company.
China Mobile was among the second batch of companies which submitted applications to the PBC in August this year.
“We are confident about getting the third-party payment license from the central bank. But some companies will not get the license by September 1，” Wang Hui， manager of payment products in the e-commerce business division of China Mobile， told the Global Times Monday.
Wang said the company would conduct business through online and mobile payments after it receives the third- party payment license.
Wang Weidong， a third-party payment analyst at marketing consultancy iResearch， told the Global Times Monday， “Too many applications is one of the reasons why the licenses haven’t been released yet. Meanwhile， the specific regulations and supervision measures for these payment companies still need to be discussed for a while.”
Wang said the central bank’s regulations will create pressure on the payment companies’ profits and business operations in a short term， but they will create a fair market competition， which is good for the whole industry.
China’s online payment market totaled 830 billion yuan ($129.65 billion) in the first half this year， with Alipay owning 47.2 percent of the market， Tenpay 20.3 percent and China UnionPay 9 percent， according to Business Research Center.
Global Times