On May 8, the UnionPay Identification Product Enterprise Qualification Certification Office (hereinafter referred to as the "UnionPay Certification Office") issued the "Notice on Canceling the Qualification of Terminal Manufacturers of the Global Exchange System", indicating that in order to continue to strengthen the quality and safety management of UnionPay certified products, the UnionPay Identification Product Enterprise Qualification Certification Office organized the sampling inspection in 2023.
After inspection, Global Convergence System Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Global Convergence System") has great security risks in terminal serial number and key management, and does not meet the requirements of the "China UnionPay Payment Terminal Product Life Cycle Security and Quality Management Guidelines". In accordance with the Implementation Rules for the Qualification Certification of China UnionPay Payment Terminal Products and the Rules for the Administration of the Qualification Certification of UnionPay Marking Product Enterprises, the UnionPay Certification Office has decided to cancel the qualification of terminal manufacturers of the Global Exchange System.
According to the mobile payment network, BBPOS Limited was established in 2008 and is headquartered in Hong Kong, with a product range of BBPOS. With a production plant in the Mainland (Dongguan, Guangdong), Global Exchange Systems focuses on providing customers with terminal equipment in the field of financial payment, including smart POS equipment, mPOS equipment, card reader equipment and other new smart payment equipment.
It is worth mentioning that BBPOS is the inventor of the world's first audio hand-brushed POS, which can be said to be the founder of mPOS technology. The mobile payment network also noted that the subsidiary of the Global Exchange System in Shenzhen, Global Exchange Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., had been dissolved in September 2021.
In fact, with regard to the compliance requirements for payment acceptance terminals, the regulator has issued several requirements emphasizing the responsibilities of clearing institutions.
For example, the Notice of the People's Bank of China on Strengthening the Security Management of Bank Card Acceptance Terminals (Yinfa [2017] No. 21) requires that bank card clearing institutions should strengthen network access management in combination with the testing and certification results of the acceptance terminals, and strictly prohibit the acceptance terminals that have not passed the testing and certification from entering the network.
Document No. 259, the Notice of the People's Bank of China on Strengthening the Management of Payment Acceptance Terminals and Related Business (Yin Fa [2021] No. 259), also has relevant management requirements, such as clearing institutions should establish and improve the registration and management platform of bank card acceptance terminals, and require cooperative manufacturers of bank card acceptance terminals to submit to the management platform the serial number and serial number key of the bank card acceptance terminal, the corresponding banking financial institutions and the names of acquirers such as non-bank payment institutions.
Circular 259 also requires that the clearing institution shall establish a management mechanism for the evaluation of cooperative manufacturers, and that for cooperative manufacturers that fail to produce bank card acceptance terminals as required, submit serial number registration information for bank card acceptance terminals, or engage in illegal activities, the clearing institution shall take measures such as requiring them to rectify within a time limit, reduce the assessment level, or even stop cooperating. The clearing institution may establish a management platform on its own or entrust other institutions to evaluate and manage cooperative manufacturers.
As the largest clearing institution in the domestic market, UnionPay has a complete process for the authentication of bank card acceptance terminals. UnionPay certification refers to the implementation of UnionPay technical standard compliance management for enterprises or products in accordance with relevant certification management requirements, such as access assessment, process assessment, and post-certification supervision.
The main responsibility of UnionPay certification is to provide relevant certification services to member institutions and industry partners under the framework of UnionPay card business rules, and to provide safe and reliable payment technology products for UnionPay member institutions to meet the needs of market business development. After years of accumulation and development, UnionPay Certification has formed a certification system covering 11 certification items in the three major fields of card, terminal and mobile payment.
The UnionPay Certification Office is the executive body of UnionPay certification, located in the technical department of China UnionPay, which is responsible for organizing and carrying out daily certification work, including supervising the quality of testing, evaluation and testing tools. The system is not the first company to have its terminal production qualification revoked by the UnionPay Certification Office.
At the beginning of last year, the POS manufacturer Guangdong Yanghang Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. was suspended from the qualification of the terminal manufacturer for leaking the terminal serial number key file to the payment institution without permission when selling POS terminals to payment institutions. However, after half a year of rectification, the manufacturer was able to restore the qualification of terminal product enterprises.
It is worth noting that, in addition to the notice on the cancellation of the qualification of terminal manufacturers of the Huanhui system, the UnionPay Certification Office has also recently announced a list of products that have passed the certification of the operating system of China UnionPay financial digital service terminals. 8 terminal equipment from terminal manufacturers such as Liandi, Huierfeng, Xinguodu, Chuangxin Technology, and Shengteng are among them.