China has placed Alipay, Tenpay, and NetsUnion Clearing Corporation under the direct anti-money laundering supervision of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), according to a report by Yicai.
The move expands the central bank’s regulatory scope to include major non-bank payment platforms as part of efforts to strengthen financial regulation and address illicit financial activity.
The change follows the PBOC’s revision of the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Anti-Money Laundering in Financial Institutions (Trial).
Under the 2014 framework, institutions subject to direct AML oversight included three policy banks, six state-owned commercial banks, nine joint-stock commercial banks, two brokerages, two insurance companies, and payment firms China UnionPay and UnionPay International.
Alipay and Tenpay, which operate as non-bank institutions, hold a large share of China’s third-party payments market.
UnionPay led with a 26.6 percent market share in 2023, followed by Alipay with 20.7 percent and Tenpay with 18.3 percent, according to industry data cited by Yicai.
NetsUnion, which was established in 2017 with PBOC approval, functions as a centralized clearing platform for transactions processed by commercial banks and non-bank payment providers.
It plays a central role in the country’s financial infrastructure by standardizing payment flows between financial institutions.
The latest oversight expansion comes amid heightened regulatory scrutiny of anti-money laundering practices among payment service providers.
Yicai reported that the PBOC issued 55 penalties to third-party firms in 2024 alone, totaling 174 million yuan (US$24 million) in fines and confiscated funds.
The largest penalties, exceeding 10 million yuan, were linked to failures in identity verification and customer due diligence.
Authorities have pointed to gaps in compliance among non-bank platforms, especially in enforcing real-name registration requirements.
The new measures bring these firms under the same supervision standards applied to traditional financial institutions.
