Rumors appeared before the new rules of the collection code landed, and the roadside stalls did not have to worry too much

On March 1 this year, the Notice of Chinese Min min bank on strengthening the management of payment acceptance terminals and related businesses (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice") will be implemented. With the landing period approaching, there have been rumors recently, there is news that after the landing of the new regulations, not only the personal collection codes of WeChat and Alipay cannot be used for operational collections, but also the data of users in the past 4 years will be traced, and if the amount is large, it will be taxed according to 4.5%, and late fees and fines will also be paid.

In response, WeChat Pay and Alipay responded, calling the news a rumor.

In November last year, there was a misreading of the Notice in the market, when it was reported that WeChat and Alipay collection codes could not be used for business collections. In fact, the "Notice" requires that individuals with obvious characteristics of business activities must not collect money through personal codes. Among them, how to define "obvious business activities" is the key. Payment practitioners and analysts are inclined to believe that the Notice is mainly for combating illegal acts such as money laundering and will not adversely affect small and micro business models such as roadside stalls.

A collection code sparked a rumor

"China Times" reporter consulted WeChat pay customer service to learn that according to Tenpay's communication with the regulatory authorities and understanding of the new regulations, after March 1, the personal collection QR code can still continue to be used, some of which have obvious business behavior users need to upgrade to business collection codes in accordance with regulations, the standard regulatory department of obvious business behavior will be announced in the near future, and the platform will retain a period of time as a transition period before the user upgrade. If it meets the upgrade standards, weChat Collection Assistant will issue a message notification, and the user's personal collection code that has not received the notification will not be affected.

Alipay customer service also told the "China Times" reporter: "We have been actively and in-depth study of the relevant requirements of supervision. According to our communication with the regulatory authorities and understanding of the new regulations, after March 1, Alipay personal collection codes can continue to be used normally, and personal collection code users with obvious business behavior need to be upgraded in accordance with regulations. ”

Alipay customer service also said that after the regulatory authorities announce the identification criteria of "obvious business behavior", they will remind and guide the personal collection code users who need to be upgraded in a conspicuous position such as the home page of "merchant services", and will set aside a period of time as a transition period. Users who have not received the notification can continue to use the personal payment code normally and will not be affected.

WeChat Pay and Alipay customer service both remind that if someone goes to the door to promote and collect relevant fees on the grounds that "the collection code cannot be used normally", they need to pay attention to precautions and beware of being deceived.

This is not the first time that a personal collection code has triggered false news.

On October 13, 2021, the People's Bank of China issued the Notice, in view of the irregularities in the use of personal collection barcodes, as well as the use of "running sub-platforms" by criminals to use personal static collection barcodes and online remote transfer of gambling funds by gamblers, requiring personal collection bar code users with obvious business characteristics to refer to special merchant management, and in principle prohibiting personal static collection barcodes from being used for remote non-face-to-face collection.

The Notice requires that "for individuals with obvious characteristics of business activities, bar code payment and collection service institutions shall provide them with special merchant collection bar codes, and refer to the implementation of relevant management regulations of special merchants, and shall not provide them with collection services related to business activities through personal collection bar codes".

In November last year, some media reported that "from March 1, 2022, WeChat and Alipay collection codes cannot be used for business collections". The news quickly fermented online, but the claim soon proved to be a misreading of the Notice.

How the new rules affect the industry

The "China Times" reporter learned in the industry that there are three main types of collection codes in the offline scan code payment market: personal codes provided by Alipay, WeChat and other institutions; merchant codes provided by Alipay, WeChat and other institutions; aggregate payment merchant codes provided by commercial banks, third-party payment institutions and fourth-party institutions.

There are differences in handling fees between these three types of collection codes. Personal codes do not charge for collection, but charge a small fee when withdrawing cash, while merchant codes usually charge a fee of 0.6%, while aggregate merchant codes generally charge a higher fee than personal codes. As a result, many individual merchants mostly use personal codes directly to collect money.

Although the news that has been circulated many times around the Notice is untrue, the industry has been affected by some. One view is that with the implementation of the Notice, some personal collection codes will be converted to aggregate payment merchant codes, so some offline acquirers will usher in a favorable situation. The specific number of personal collection codes that need to be "transcoded" is also a problem that has not yet been clarified.

Shares of payments 300773.SZ rose for a time last November.

On February 11 this year, new world (000997. SZ) was asked when surveyed by the agency, and was asked whether the company had proposed relevant plans after the release of the Notice. What are the results?

Newland replied that in terms of hardware equipment, Newland will provide special merchant collection barcodes for small and micro merchants, driving the demand for payment and collection equipment, and has made relevant equipment reserves. "In terms of merchant operation services, the audience group of personal code to business code is mainly small and medium-sized micro merchants, the monthly flow of 1-100,000 merchants served by the company accounts for nearly 45% of the company's flow structure, and the personal code transfer business code will further promote the effective use of laying merchant flow, which is a better process for the company to expand merchants, and the company will further expand the strength of merchant laying in the future."

In addition, the "China Times" reporter also noted that with the approaching deadline of the "Notice", some banks are also pushing their own collection codes.

For example, on February 18, the Agricultural Bank of China issued a document on the public account to promote the "ABC Aggregation Code", saying that the aggregation code is a merchant collection code that meets the latest policy requirements, integrating WeChat, Alipay, UnionPay Cloud Flash Payment, and ABC Palm Banking Omni-channel Collection Method, and the funds of each channel directly enter the bank account without withdrawal fee.

ICBC also has a similar move, on February 21, ICBC Changzhou Branch public account issued a document introducing the "e-payment collection code", saying that the collection code supports WeChat pay, Alipay, UnionPay cloud flash payment, Jingdong payment, ICBC e payment and other mainstream payment methods in the market, and can also support credit card binding card transactions, and the collection rate is excellent, there is no cost for withdrawal, zero fees for mobile phone remittances, D+1 to the account.

So, how much impact will the Notice have on the collection market after it lands?

A number of people in the payment industry told the "China Times" reporter that the definition of "obvious business behavior" in the "Notice" is the key, which is related to how many small and micro merchants will be included in it. If a certain transaction scale is required to be considered an obvious business behavior, then in fact, the general roadside stalls will not be affected.

Wang Pengbo, a senior analyst in the financial industry of Broadcom Consulting, pointed out to the "China Times" reporter on February 21 that in order to ensure that the normal use of users is not affected, the relevant standards will definitely take into account the legitimate rights and interests of individual merchants exempted from industrial and commercial registration such as street stalls, and will not increase the operating costs of small and micro merchants.

Moreover, Wang Pengbo believes that the "Notice" will not have much impact on the acquiring market, and the phenomenon of large-scale "transcoding" will not appear, because the "Notice" regulates personal bar codes to avoid ordinary users' code cards from being used by fraudsters and running sub-platforms, to avoid personal codes becoming a channel for running points, and the rest should not be over-interpreted.

Editor-in-Charge: Meng Junlian Editor-in-Chief: Ran Xuedong