Recently, the People's Bank of China has thoroughly implemented the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, conscientiously implemented the requirements of the "Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Further Optimizing Payment Services and Improving Payment Convenience" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), regarded the optimization of payment services as a key task, strengthened cross-departmental cooperation, accelerated the improvement of the policy system, established a three-dimensional work pattern of horizontal penetration, integration of sections and key promotions, took multiple measures to optimize payment services, and worked hard to break through payment blockages, and continued to improve the convenience of payment for foreign personnel coming to China.
"The focus of optimizing payment services has been expanded from 17 key cities to the whole country, in addition to continuing to maintain the previous efforts, it is more important to build a sustainable development model." On May 11, Zhang Qingsong, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, said at a meeting held by the People's Bank of China on optimizing payment services that the cooperation between the financial sector, competent departments of various industries, local governments, financial institutions and enterprises in various industries is crucial, and it is necessary to make concerted efforts to promote the healthy operation of the market, base themselves on reality and face the long term, further improve the scientificity, accuracy and sustainability of the work in accordance with the principle of "meeting market demand while avoiding waste of resources", and make this work a key task. We will strive to achieve a greater breakthrough by the end of June.
Keep an eye on key tasks and break through payment blockages
Since February 29, when the People's Bank of China (PBoC) held a meeting to promote the optimization of payment services, the PBOC has promoted various tasks at an extraordinary pace and made important progress in optimizing payment services.
Specifically, in terms of mobile payment, the People's Bank of China instructed Alipay and Tenpay to optimize the business processes of "external card internal binding" and "outsourcing and internal use", enrich product functions, increase transaction limits, and facilitate the use of mobile payment by inbound personnel. According to statistics, in April, 900,000 inbound personnel used "foreign card internal binding" and 1.13 million people used "outsourcing internal use", with a total of 19.05 million transactions and an amount of 2.7 billion yuan, an increase of 10% and 11% month-on-month compared with March.
In terms of bank card acceptance, the People's Bank of China has instructed banks and other financial institutions to accelerate the transformation of key venues and key merchants such as airports, hotels, and scenic spots to accept overseas bank cards, so as to improve the bank card acceptance environment. According to statistics, the number and amount of foreign card POS transactions in April increased by about 20% month-on-month compared with March.
In terms of foreign currency exchange, the People's Bank of China, together with the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, instructed banks and other financial institutions to provide cash exchange services through bank outlets, foreign currency exchange facilities, ATMs and other channels, so as to optimize the supply of foreign currency exchange services and enrich the supply of foreign currency exchange currencies.
In terms of the use of cash, the People's Bank of China organized commercial banks to distribute RMB cash "coin purses" in different denominations, including 1 yuan, 5 yuan and 10 yuan, to ensure cash supply and continue to carry out special rectification of refusal to accept RMB cash. Commercial banks have produced and distributed more than 7 million "coin purses".
In terms of account services, the People's Bank of China (PBoC) organized commercial banks and payment institutions to further optimize the account opening service process, rationally implement classified and hierarchical management of accounts, improve multilingual services, consultation and complaint and other supporting services for account opening, and continuously improve the level of account services.
Improve the policy framework and strengthen synergy
Optimizing payment services is a systematic project, which requires cross-departmental collaboration and synergy. Zhang Qingsong said that at the central level, on the basis of the "Opinions", the People's Bank of China, together with the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Communications and other departments, jointly issued a document to build a 1+N policy system based on the "Opinions" and supplemented by the joint document, and promote the optimization of payment services in the fields of commerce, cultural tourism, and transportation.
At the local level, People's Bank of China branches were deployed to strengthen cooperation with local governments, formulate specific work plans, and submit them to local party committees and governments for review. More than 20 provinces and cities, including Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dalian, Chengdu, Shaanxi, Henan and Fujian, have issued implementation plans for optimizing payment services.
Talking about the next step of the People's Bank of China's consideration of further promoting and optimizing the payment work, Zhang Qingsong said that the first is to continue to improve the bank card acceptance environment. The second is to continue to improve the payment services of bank branches. The third is to give full play to the role of cash as a backstop. Fourth, we should further improve foreign currency exchange services. Fifth, strengthen publicity and promotion and improve the effectiveness of publicity.
On February 29, the People's Bank of China (PBoC) held a meeting to promote the optimization of payment services, focusing on the inconvenience of payment for the elderly, foreign visitors to China and other groups.
On March 7, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Further Optimizing Payment Services and Improving Payment Convenience";
On March 14, the official WeChat public account of the People's Bank of China successively released the "Guide to Optimizing Payment Services and Usage Guide|Payment Guide for Foreign Visitors to China" and "Guide to Payment Services in China", introducing the acquisition methods and use processes of various payment services.
Since March, the People's Bank of China has held meetings to promote the optimization of payment services in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Zhejiang and other places, urging and guiding local financial institutions to increase their work and continue to optimize payment services.
On April 16, the People's Bank of China, the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange jointly issued the Notice on Further Optimizing Payment Services in the Commercial Sector and Improving the Convenience of Payment (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), which focuses on improving the multi-level and diversified payment service system and jointly improving the level of payment services in the commercial field from the aspects of determining the list of key places and key merchants in the commercial field, building an inclusive and diverse payment acceptance environment, optimizing the cash use environment, and enriching mobile payment applications......
Source: Financial Times client
Reporter: Ma Ling
Editor: Duan Jiaxi
Email: [email protected]