Pay for the number of licenses minus one more. On May 22, the reporter of Beijing business daily noted that the central bank’s official website had recently updated the cancellation list of payment licenses, and the payment licenses of Shanghai Shanghai Xinhua Media Co.Ltd(600825) e-commerce Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Xinhua e-commerce”) had been cancelled. This is the fourth payment license cancelled by the central bank since 2022 and the 51st payment license cancelled in the market.
According to the information disclosed by the central bank, among the payment institutions that have cancelled their licenses, the number of prepaid card issuance and acceptance licenses accounts for a large number, and most of them actively apply for cancellation or no renewal at maturity. Some analysts pointed out that more institutions will choose to take the initiative to cancel the prepaid card business license in the future, but there are still large market demand and business opportunities for prepaid business.
2021 turn loss into profit
Add another “new member” to the cancellation list of payment license. Recently, the official website of the central bank updated the information of cancelled payment licensing institutions, and Xinhua e-commerce appeared on the page. According to the information disclosed on the official website of the central bank, the type of payment license held by Xinhua e-commerce is prepaid card issuance and acceptance, and the business coverage is Shanghai. It took the initiative to apply for cancellation on April 1.
The reporter of Beijing business daily further inquired and found that Xinhua e-commerce, founded in October 2008, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the listed company Shanghai Xinhua Media Co.Ltd(600825) with a registered capital of 100 million yuan. In June 2012, Xinhua e-commerce obtained the payment license when the central bank issued the fourth batch of payment licenses. The prepaid card product is called “Xinhua one city card”. At present, the official website of Xinhua e-commerce cannot be opened.
Relying on the brand effect of shareholder Shanghai Xinhua Media Co.Ltd(600825) , the merchant types of Xinhua e-commerce have been expanded to Xinhua Bookstore, education and training institutions, ticketing cinemas and other categories Shanghai Xinhua Media Co.Ltd(600825) in the company’s 2019 financial report, it was also mentioned to speed up market development and continue to promote the linkage development between Xinhua one city card and Xinhua one city network. The latter is a B2C e-commerce website of Shanghai Xinhua Media Co.Ltd(600825) which mainly operates book business.
In addition, according to the Shanghai Xinhua Media Co.Ltd(600825) financial report, Xinhua e-commerce has performed mediocrely in recent years. In 2019, Xinhua e-commerce lost 490200 yuan and its net assets were 705745 million yuan; The loss of Xinhua e-commerce expanded to 6.0524 million yuan in 2020, and the company’s net assets also shrunk to 645221 million yuan. After two consecutive years of losses, Xinhua e-commerce turned losses into profits in 2021, with a net profit of 3.055 million yuan, a net asset of 675771 million yuan and a total asset of 230 million yuan.
Wang Peng, an associate professor of Renmin University of China, told the Beijing Business Daily that under the current financial regulatory environment, higher requirements are put forward for the compliance of financial institutions and the sustainability of upstream and downstream industrial chain business. The withdrawal of relevant payment institutions is closely related to the development of their track.
\u3000\u3000 “Take Xinhua e-commerce as an example. Backed by listed companies, Xinhua e-commerce brings its own traffic in education, training, books and other fields, which is also its advantage. However, under the group’s diversified strategy and superimposed its license type restrictions, Xinhua e-commerce can not be used as the only payment channel. In addition, compared with other types of scenarios, Xinhua e-commerce has limited transaction quota and application scenarios. After long-term dependence on shareholders’ resources, it is also difficult to form a unique core Competitiveness and further outward expansion of business. ” Wang Peng added.
On May 22, the reporter of Beijing business daily repeatedly contacted Xinhua e-commerce to understand the specific reasons for the cancellation of Xinhua e-commerce license and subsequent treatment, but as of press time, no reply has been received.
market 220 remaining licenses
The reporter of Beijing business daily noted that the Xinhua e-commerce license is valid until June 26, 2022. According to the original plan, Xinhua e-commerce, together with more than 80 Payment institutions, will usher in a new round of license renewal examination in June 2022.
Only according to the cancellation time, including Xinhua e-commerce, the central bank has cancelled a total of four payment licenses since 2022. In mid April, the official website of the central bank disclosed the cancellation of three payment licenses: Shaanxi post West mail electronic payment Co., Ltd., Beijing Fanxing Valley Information Technology Co., Ltd. and Fujian Yintong Business Service Co., Ltd. actively applied for the cancellation of licenses.
Xinhua e-commerce is also the 51st cancelled payment license. Combined with the information disclosed by the central bank, so far, the central bank has issued a total of 271 payment licenses, and there are still 220 payment licenses in normal operation in the market.
From the situation of 51 institutions that have cancelled their payment licenses, the main reasons for the cancellation of licenses include serious violations, active application for cancellation and business merger. In recent years, as the Central Bank continues to tighten the regulatory red line of payment business, the cancellation of licenses caused by serious violations is becoming less and less, and more Payment institutions actively apply for cancellation, mostly prepaid card licenses.
Unlike the hot transfer of Internet payment licenses, the cancellation of prepaid card licenses is mostly for enterprises to choose to withdraw from the market. Su Xiaorui, senior analyst of Analysys financial industry, pointed out that this is mainly related to the value of prepaid card license and market liquidity. In the current environment, the offline prepaid card business, which was originally the main business, is facing challenges in the context of the vigorous development of the digital economy and the normalization of epidemic prevention and control; At the same time, some prepaid card institutions only have business qualifications in some regions, the scope of exhibition industry is limited, and their own direction is not clear, resulting in their dilemma in exhibition industry.
For the current test faced by payment institutions, Wang Peng pointed out that not only prepaid card institutions, but also the remaining payment institutions are facing strong supervision. The tests they face include homogeneous market competition, whether they have unique advantages, characteristics and ability level, which requires relevant institutions to increase investment in application scenarios, technical models and talent team construction.
“In the future, more institutions will choose to take the initiative to cancel the prepaid card business license.” Su Xiaorui predicted. At the same time, Su Xiaorui pointed out that at present, there are still large market demand and business opportunities for prepayment business, and some institutions are actively seeking changes. For example, using new technologies to explore the combination of programmable and traceable features with smart contracts and implement them into prepayment business, especially the application of digital RMB in rental, education and training and other scenarios, which makes the prospect of digital transformation of prepayment business more possible.
