China’s central bank said they will open up the electronic payments market to foreign companies for the first time; international firms will be required to set up local units, establish infrastructure within China, and store client information within the country; China is one of the biggest and most competitive payments markets in the world; there are currently more than 260 companies with payments licenses and they processed more than $26tn in volume in 2017. Source.
Sizable fintech companies should face the same regulator scrutiny as banks according to China’s Central Bank; this follows what the PBOC said in August, that internet finance companies should be included in the Macro Prudential Assessment framework which was designed for banks; having banks and fintech companies operate under the same rules could streamline regulation. Source.
China’s central bank announced new regulations to curb risk in the asset management space; the new rules are an attempt to unify regulatory areas, prohibit asset managers from guaranteeing returns and have them set aside 10 percent for provisioning; “The central bank is trying to thread a very fine needle,” said Andrew Polk at Trivium China, a Beijing consultancy. Source.