PBOC Governor Reiterates Commitment to Full Regulation of Fintech, Anti-trust Enforcement for Internet Platforms

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The head of the Chinese central bank has reiterated the official position that all forms of financial activity in China must be included within the purview of regulation, following the breakneck development of the domestic fintech sector.

“Chinese regulatory authorities are working hard to effectively balance the relationship between encouraging development and preventing risk,” said Yi Gang (易纲), the governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), at a fintech and payments event held on 18 September.

To this end, Yi said that Chinese regulators are focusing on several key areas including:

  1. Upholding the full inclusion of financial activities within financial regulation, and ensuring that financial operations are all licensed. Requiring that payments return to its “original source,” and breaking inappropriate linkages between payments tools and other financial products.
  2. Strengthening anti-trust enforcement, unveiling the “Anti-monopoly Guidelines on the Platform Economy Sphere” (关于平台经济领域的反垄断指南) driving large-scale Internet platform enterprises to open up closed scenarios, and fully protecting the right of consumers to payments choice rights.
  3. Implementing macro-prudential regulatory requirements, improving corporate governance, enforcing the compliant undertaking of online loan and deposit, insurance and fund operations.

Yi said that the next step for Chinese regulators will be to “continually place equal emphasis on development and standardisation, and support and expedite platform economies to engage in compliant innovation.”

“On the one hand, [we] will spur the vigour of market actors and tech innovation activity, and spur platform enterprises to continually raise financial services, and consolidate and strengthen international competitive capability.

“On the other hand, we will uphold strict and fair regulation, protect data ownership rights and personal privacy, and maintain a fair and competitive financial market order.”