28/11/2021
New rules for payment scanning: the merchant code rate is 6 times that of the personal code
Recently, "From March 1 next year, WeChat and Alipay personal collection codes cannot be used for business collections" rushed to hot searches and swiped the screens on major social platforms. The "Daily Economic News" reporter learned that this news originated from the new notice on the regulation of bar code payment issued by the central bank recently.
On October 13 this year, the central bank’s official website issued the "Notice of the People’s Bank of China on Strengthening the Management of Payment Acceptance Terminals and Related Businesses (Yinfa [2021] No. 259)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), regarding the management of payment acceptance terminals and special merchants Specific requirements are put forward in terms of management, acquiring business monitoring, etc., and will be implemented on March 1, 2022.
It is worth noting that barcode payments, which are frequently used daily, are also included in the supervision. Regarding the personal payment barcodes that have been widely used in recent years, the "Notice" has made specific provisions on its use specifications, mainly focusing on formulating a payment barcode classification management system, prohibiting personal static payment barcodes from being used for remote non-face-to-face payment collection, It is not allowed to use personal payment barcodes for business activities related payment services and other aspects.
Does this mean that the WeChat or Alipay payment codes that we take for granted can no longer be used? Are the markets of the two giants WeChat and Alipay affected by this? What is the difference between the merchant collection code and the personal collection code that you care about in the use? What impact will this new regulation have on the payment industry, small and micro merchants, and consumers?
Can’t use the personal payment code anymore?
It just can’t be used in business scenarios anymore
It can be seen that the central bank has made specific regulations on the use of barcodes for personal receipts in the above-mentioned "Notice", mainly as follows:
The first is to refer to the management of special merchants for personal payment barcode users with obvious business characteristics, and require payment barcodes for such individual users to be provided to improve the quality of acquiring services for individual operators.
The second is to require personal static payment barcodes to be used in remote non-face-to-face payment collections in principle, and it is indeed necessary to implement whitelist management to prevent personal static payment barcodes from being sold, rented, or lent to build online recharge channels for gambling activities .
The third is to refer to the relevant requirements of personal static collection barcodes for personal dynamic collection barcodes saved through screenshots, downloads, etc., to prevent criminals from using personal dynamic collection barcodes to circumvent policy requirements.
Fourth, it is required to carefully determine the access conditions and scale of the whitelist of personal static collection barcodes, the validity period, the number of uses and transaction limits of the personal static collection barcodes, to prevent the risk of whitelist abuse.
"This does not mean that the personal collection code can no longer be used, but it can no longer be used in business scenarios." The person in charge of a payment company told the reporter of "Daily Economic News". He also mentioned that the supervision is not "completely stuck" for restricting personal static collection barcodes from being used for remote non-face-to-face collection. In special circumstances, you can apply for a whitelist.
In fact, the "Notice" puts forward the above-mentioned four requirements on the personal collection code because there are some hidden risks in the personal collection code. For example, some institutions use personal payment bar code transfer services to handle a large number of production, operation, and consumption transactions, which not only confuses the nature of transactions, causes distortion of transaction information, affects the effect of risk monitoring, and is not conducive to the use of payment services to add value to business activities. There are also some criminals who use the "run sub-platform" to attract a large number of people to use personal static collection barcodes to remotely transfer gambling funds with gamblers "point-to-point" online with high profits, hiding the gambling funds split in many normal transaction scenarios. Disrupted the normal order of the barcode payment business and affected the effectiveness of the traceability mechanism of the "fund chain" involved in gambling.
Analysys senior analyst Su Xiaorui said in an interview with the reporter of "Daily Economic News" that the management standards related to personal collection codes are not only conducive to the classification and management of personal collections and merchant collections, but also can prevent personal collections. The money code was "taken advantage of" by criminals, which can make up for the shortcomings that existed before, and ultimately lay a good foundation for promoting the healthy and orderly development of the payment market.
The person in charge of the relevant department of the central bank previously stated that in order to ensure the effective implementation of barcode-related requirements for personal payment and the smooth transition of business, the "Notice" set a transition period, requiring payment service entities to fully and fully assess the normal payment needs of customers and formulate supporting service solutions. Do a good job in customer guidance and service to ensure that service costs will not rise and quality will not drop.
What is the difference between the two collection codes?
The merchant code rate is relatively higher, and the personal code may be limited
It is worth mentioning that the "Notice" explains the management of the receipt barcode. For the receipt barcode generated for individuals or special merchants and other payees, which are used by the payer to read and initiate payment instructions, the barcode payment receipt Service agencies should formulate a system for the classification and management of collection barcodes to effectively distinguish the scenarios and uses of the collection barcodes used by individuals and special merchants, and prevent the collection barcodes from being rented, lent, sold, or used in illegal activities.
The person in charge of the above payment company explained to each reporter: "In general, during the daily scan code payment process, one situation is that there is a small avatar in the middle of the code that we scan. This is generally a personal collection generated by Alipay or WeChat. The code can improve the user experience during normal transfers. Another case is that there is no avatar in the middle of the scanned code, then this code belongs to the merchant’s access to the network."
Some market analysis pointed out that the distinction between personal code and merchant code is currently under the new regulations, this responsibility is mainly borne by WeChat Pay, Alipay and Cloud QuickPass that provide the collection code, and it is expected to be mainly based on a series of rules such as collection frequency and amount. It remains to be seen whether to make the distinction, whether to formulate the rules uniformly, or whether each family makes a distinction on its own.
"Personal code and merchant code are definitely different in terms of rates." An industry veteran said that the rate of merchant code fees (which can be understood as handling fees) is much higher than that of personal codes.
He further explained that the personal code only charges a withdrawal fee when the bank card is withdrawn, and the charging standard is generally 0.1%. The merchant code is generally relatively high. For example, the merchant code of WeChat is generally 0.6%, and there may be exceptions to the merchant rate of a few individual industries. Third-party aggregate payment is a bit lower than WeChat payment, but it is also around 0.4%⁓0.5%. In general, no matter what kind of merchant code, the rate is higher than the personal code.
In addition, after the implementation of the new regulations, there may be limits for personal code receipts and payments. The person in charge of the payment company said that at present, there are not too many limits for personal codes. For example, Alipay can still make relatively large transfers. However, subsequent third-party payment institutions may limit the personal code to prevent it from being used in certain non-compliant scenarios.
What is the impact on the payment industry?
The two giants still have resource advantages
According to statistics, the current offline scan code payment market includes three major categories of merchant codes, personal codes, and third-party aggregate payment provided by giants. The annual scale of the scan code payment market is about 40-50 trillion yuan, of which aggregate payment is about 15 trillion yuan.
Regarding the introduction of this new regulation, a major focus of the market is whether this means that the market share of Alipay and WeChat will be affected? And will other acquirers usher in development opportunities?
It is understood that there are roughly two ways to convert a personal code to a merchant code. One is Alipay and WeChat to guide merchants from personal code to merchant code; the other is to convert the existing collection code to an aggregate payment provided by the acquirer. Way.
"For other payment institutions, I don't think it is so obvious." The person in charge of the aforementioned payment institution told reporters frankly that, on the one hand, except for Alipay and WeChat, other payment institutions generally would not do this kind of personal code because of the personal code. It only makes sense if the wallet is bigger. Most institutions do transaction acceptance. On the other hand, it remains to be seen how Alipay and WeChat will guide their existing users to convert personal codes into merchant codes according to regulations and needs. "The two giants may use some preferential methods to promote this conversion, such as subsidizing handling fees, etc. They have such resource advantages."
The person further added: “Therefore, it’s not that Alipay and WeChat will pass out of this market due to the change in the payment code, and then other acquirers will divide it. This is not the case. In addition, other institutions are doing this. When doing business, there are also differences with Alipay and WeChat. For example, the presentation of merchant codes. Many institutions are doing aggregation codes-a code plate can be compatible with various institution code plates. After the personal code cannot be used for business activities, There may be merchants who choose aggregation codes for more convenience, which will also bring some market opportunities to institutions other than Alipay and WeChat. Of course, there are many factors to consider, such as rates."
In addition, Wang Pengbo, a senior analyst in Broadcom's financial industry, told the "Daily Economic News" reporter that the compliance tasks of acquirers will increase, but the inclusion of individual operators in merchant management actually increases the number of merchants, and in the long run It can be seen that the effective protection of the rights and interests of merchants will benefit the development of the overall industry.
"From the perspective of the overall development of the industry, how to find a balance between rapid development and risk control has always been a topic worthy of discussion. In the early stage of industry development, it is a good idea to consider factors such as inclusiveness and allow the market to have a certain period of free development. However, when the market is large enough, the importance of compliance should be increased. For clearing organizations and licensed third-party payment institutions like UnionPay that have always adhered to risk control regulations, there will be more room for development. "Wang Pengbo said.
What is the impact on merchants?
Conducive to ensuring the safety of funds of small and micro merchants
In addition to the payment industry, what impact will this new regulation have on consumers and small and micro merchants?
The relevant person in charge of the central bank stated that the "Notice" will generally help to better protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and will help prevent criminals from stealing consumers' personal information by modifying payment acceptance terminals, applying for false merchants, and even embezzling account funds; At the same time, it is conducive to improving the quality of services such as bank statements and transaction information inquiries for banks and payment institutions, fully guaranteeing consumers' right to know, and reducing related disputes and complaints. In the long run, the relevant requirements of the "Notice" on regulating personal collection codes will further improve the quality of acquiring services for individual operators and small and micro merchants.
Not only that, for users of personal collection codes with obvious characteristics of business activities, the "Notice" requires acquiring agencies to refer to the management of special merchants. Will this affect the large number of "street vendors" with a wider range?
The central bank stated that after individual operators and small and micro merchants cooperate with acquirers to complete the merchant’s network access procedures, acquirers should provide payment services in accordance with merchant service standards, and establish the corresponding relationship between merchants and acquirer settlement accounts and other key information in accordance with regulations. It helps prevent the risks of embezzlement of funds by outsourcing agencies and the "second clearing" of large merchants from the source, and helps to better protect the financial security and service experience of individual operators and small and micro merchants.
"For small and medium-sized merchants, it actually makes up for the loopholes that have always existed in the direction of misappropriation of funds, second clearing, and code skipping, which helps to better protect the financial security of individual operators and small and micro merchants. On the other hand, The fee reduction has been implemented, and the operating costs of offline merchants have been reducing, which actually has little impact on individual operators." Wang Pengbo said.
Su Xiaorui believes that "street hawkers" are only a specific type of commodity sellers, and the identification of barcode types is not related to the business form of the store, but mainly focuses on whether its transaction frequency and other characteristics have operating characteristics. As long as there are business characteristics, follow-up regulations need to be carried out in accordance with the documents.
"It depends on whether you are engaged in commercial activities, such as building a pancake stall and sticking the payment code to the side to collect payment. Such commercial activities cannot use the personal payment code to collect payment. Similar to commercial activities with frequent transactions, All need to apply for a merchant code at payment institutions such as Alipay and WeChat, and use the merchant code to collect payments." The person in charge of the aforementioned payment company also told reporters.
From the personal code to the merchant code, how accepted by the small merchants?
The above-mentioned industry veterans confessed to reporters that after the merchant codes are connected to NetPay and UnionPay and all merchants are replaced with merchant codes, although it is more conducive to the regulatory agencies to crack down on crimes, the actual operation is somewhat difficult.
The person in charge of the payment company mentioned above also said: "Although fee reductions are being implemented, the merchant code fee is still a little higher than the personal code anyway, and small and micro merchants themselves are price sensitive, so they are not willing to change the code for the time being. It's not surprising either."
How to apply for a merchant code?
Can be operated online, small and micro merchants do not need a business license
It is not difficult for merchants to apply for a merchant code. The person in charge of the aforementioned payment company told reporters that for the time being, ordinary merchants can apply for merchant receipt barcodes in accordance with the relevant regulations of the central bank, and generally require verification of business licenses and other documents during processing.
As for “street vendors” who do not have a business license, there are certain differences in the application process. He told reporters that the "Notice" specifically mentioned the management requirements of "specialized merchants", and "specialized merchants" are mainly for small vendors who do not have business licenses. Such operators need to comply with the requirements of third-party payment institutions when applying. Provide relevant supporting materials, such as on-site photos and so on. He also added that different third-party payment institutions may have different requirements for verification of certification materials.
In order to further clarify the steps for merchants to apply for a merchant code, the reporter went to the official WeChat payment website to "experience" the application process.
The official website shows that the WeChat payment collection business version is a self-service WeChat payment collection product that can be activated and developed without development. The WeChat Collection Business Edition provides convenient and rich digital solutions for collection operations for small and medium-sized merchants.
The page also shows that the commercial version has features such as "development-free use of WeChat payment", "different store operations", "support credit card collection", "automatic withdrawal of bank accounts", "fast access to hardware devices" and other features, and support "operation reports" and "scan code return" "Payment", "Scan QR Code Collection", "Receipt Audio" and other functions.
As far as the current operation process is concerned, the reporter enters the self-service application page by scanning the code on the mobile phone, and the page displays the opening instructions such as "Activity rate 0.6%" and "Funds T+1 to the account". Entering the merchant registration interface, you can find that the WeChat collection code commercial version is open to registration for a total of 5 main types, namely enterprises, party and government, government agencies and institutions, individual industrial and commercial households, and other organizations (such as social organizations, private non-enterprise, and fund (Will) and small and micro merchants, there are also differences in the materials that each entity type needs to prepare when applying.
It can be found in the introduction content of the subject type that the "small and micro merchants" here refer to the entity special merchants that are exempt from business registration and have no business license in accordance with laws, regulations and relevant regulatory provisions. When small and micro merchants apply for a merchant code, the application materials only need to provide supporting certification materials and the ID of the person in charge.
The person in charge of the aforementioned payment company also told reporters that the auxiliary certification materials generally refer to materials such as photos of the business of the booth, which are mainly used to prove whether the merchant is actually doing business.
