Digital Payments & Fintech · China
Fintech & payments regulation in China (2026)
China shaded by its digital payments & fintech status
Fintech and digital payments in China: licensing regime.
FrameworkRegulations on the Supervision and Administration of Non-bank Payment Institutions (State Council Decree No. 768, effective 1 May 2024) plus PBOC Implementation Rules (July 2024). Primary regulator: People's Bank of China (PBOC); consumer finance / BNPL-adjacent lending supervised by the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA).
China operates one of the world's most mature and prescriptive licensing regimes for non-bank digital payments. State Council Decree No. 768, in force since 1 May 2024, together with PBOC's July 2024 Implementation Rules, sets uniform authorization, capital, governance and consumer-protection requirements for payment institutions (which were consolidated into two license types: 'stored-value account operations' and 'payment transaction processing'). PBOC also runs the retail instant-payment rail (IBPS via CNCC), the CIPS cross-border RMB system, and directly operates the e-CNY (digital yuan), whose upgraded framework took effect 1 January 2026.
Key points
State Council Order No. 768 (signed 9 Dec 2023, effective 1 May 2024) codifies non-bank payment supervision for the first time at administrative-regulation level. It replaces PBOC's older 2010 measures with two consolidated license categories and requires PBOC approval for establishment, major shareholders, and cross-border payment activities.
PBOC promulgated the Detailed Implementation Rules on 9 July 2024, specifying licensing procedures, net-asset thresholds, client-fund custody, merchant due diligence, and transitional arrangements for the ~170 existing licensees to migrate to the new license categories.
Under the new regime PBOC has begun issuing indefinite (non-expiring) payment licenses, subject to ongoing supervision; the first tranche of 13 long-term licenses in 2025 included Douyin Pay and Huawei's Petal Pay, ending the previous mandatory 5-year renewal cycle.
Retail instant payments settle via PBOC's Internet Banking Payment System (IBPS), operated by the China National Clearing Center, with clearing typically under 20 seconds and a CNY 1 million per-transaction ceiling. Cross-border RMB flows use CIPS, whose revised rules took effect in February 2026 requiring RTGS for single cross-border RMB payments and net settlement for batches.
An upgraded e-CNY management framework took effect 1 January 2026, making wallet balances interest-bearing, integrating them into bank asset-liability management and deposit-insurance protection. On 17 August 2026 PBOC approved 8 additional operators, expanding the authorized operator network to 30 banks.
China does not have a stand-alone BNPL statute; embedded credit (Alipay Huabei, JD Baitiao, Meituan Monthly Pay, etc.) is channelled through PBOC- and NFRA-licensed consumer finance companies, small-loan companies or bank co-lending. In 2025 JD.com's acquisition of Home Credit's China unit brought it a nationwide consumer finance licence, illustrating the shift of platform BNPL onto regulated balance sheets.
PBOC's Regulations on Data Security in PBOC Business Areas (effective 30 June 2025) and Cybersecurity Incident Reporting Measures (effective 1 August 2025) impose sector-specific data-classification, cross-border transfer and breach-notification duties on payment institutions and other regulated fintechs.
Timeline - major decisions & events
Reports indicate a new framework allowing e-CNY holdings to earn interest, piloted via Shanghai's digital yuan hub, marking a shift toward making the CBDC competitive with bank deposits for users.
CoinDesk ↗The PBOC's Digital Currency Institute launched a center to operate cross-border and blockchain infrastructure for the digital yuan, advancing internationalization of the e-CNY for cross-border payments.
People's Bank of China ↗The PBOC issued 77-article Detailed Rules implementing the 2023 Regulations, specifying licensing application conditions, registered-capital calculation, equity penetration oversight, and a transition period running to each institution's permit expiry.
People's Bank of China ↗State Council Decree No. 768 (signed by Premier Li Qiang on Dec 17, 2023) elevated payment supervision to administrative-regulation level, defining non-bank payment institutions, setting a CNY 100 million minimum paid-up capital, and codifying licensing and risk-management duties.
Ministry of Justice (China) ↗The PBOC and other regulators fined Ant Group ~CNY 7.12 billion ($985m) for violations spanning corporate governance, consumer protection, and AML, formally concluding the multi-year crackdown and clearing the path for a financial holding company license.
China Daily ↗Under regulators' guidance, Ant Group began a sweeping rectification, becoming a regulated financial holding company, severing Alipay's links to lending products Huabei and Jiebei, and curbing leverage, reshaping how China supervises payment-platform conglomerates.
Caixin Global ↗Days before listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong, regulators halted Ant's IPO after summoning Jack Ma, citing 'material changes' in the regulatory environment for fintech, the pivotal event triggering China's fintech regulatory overhaul.
CNBC ↗The central bank started real-world pilots of its central bank digital currency in Shenzhen and other cities, distributing e-CNY to residents and later expanding to 28 cities, China's first operational sovereign digital currency.
Atlantic Council ↗Following the US-China trade deal, the PBOC approved PayPal's acquisition of GoPay (first foreign online payment license) and accepted American Express's and Mastercard's bank-card clearing applications, ending the domestic monopoly on card clearing.
TechCrunch ↗The PBOC ordered all non-bank payment institutions to route online transactions through the new centralized NetsUnion clearing platform (migration by Oct 15, 2017), ending direct bank connections and giving regulators full visibility over payment flows.
The Asian Banker ↗The central bank began granting payment business permits (valid five years) to credible non-bank institutions including Alipay, formally legitimizing the third-party payment industry under the 2010 framework.
China Briefing ↗The PBOC issued the foundational rule (Order No. 2) requiring any non-financial institution providing payment services to obtain a PBOC payment license, establishing China's first licensing regime for third-party/digital payments.
AppInChina (PBOC text) ↗China - other topics
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