Supervision of online payments must not harm Internet innovation

[By Yang Yongliang/China.org.cn]

Supervision of the third party online payments should protect the spirit of Internet innovation, and consider the vitality of enterprises and the experience of consumers.

During the spreading of the rumor and later clarification about the 5,000 yuan limit on third-party online payments per day, the proposal released for public consultation last Friday by the People's Bank of China (PBOC) has been spread rapidly among Internet users.

Internet users thought the 5,000 yuan limit harmed their interests, so there was a lot of controversy. But the PBOC clarified that it was a misunderstanding. According to the clarification, the 5,000 yuan limit only refers to the third party online payment account. If you want to pay more than 5,000 yuan, you can still pay using a bank account. That is to say, the consumers' limits have not been actually affected.

Now, the real people who will be impacted by the proposal are Internet finance companies including third party online payments companies such as Alipay. The new requirements of a payment limit and multiple cross checks will hugely limit those companies' businesses. For example, some enterprises send salaries to employees via Alipay, and they might not be able to do this again in the future, because there is a 5,000 yuan limit. They cannot transfer money from a bank account to an Alipay account to their employees either, because the new proposed rules state that an Alipay account can only transfer money out to a bank account with the same ID and name as the Alipay account. It means that one person will no longer be allowed to transfer money to another person's bank account using Alipay.