The latest response from the central bank and other departments! It’s about your payment
On March 1st, the State Council Press Office held a routine briefing on policies. The People’s Bank of China, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange and other departments introduced the situation of "further optimizing payment services and improving payment convenience" and paid attention to it together.
A quick look at the main points:
Banks and payment institutions should further optimize the account opening process, rationally implement the classified management of accounts, and continuously improve the service level of accounts.
Guide major payment institutions such as Alipay and Tenpay to increase the limit of single transaction for foreign visitors to China from $1,000 to $5,000.
At present, the major mobile payment apps have been upgraded for aging, and more than 96% of the bank outlets in the country have promoted aging transformation.
Continue to retain the manual ticket window and manual ticket checking method to facilitate the elderly and foreign friends to purchase tickets offline.
What measures have been put forward in the Opinions on Further Optimizing Payment Services and Improving Payment Convenience, which was deliberated and adopted by the the State Council executive meeting?
People’s Bank of China:
1. Promote key places and key merchants to accept overseas bank cards, and effectively improve the acceptance environment of bank cards.
2. Adhere to the positioning of cash, continuously improve the cash use environment, and continuously improve the level of foreign currency exchange and cash services.
3. Fully consider the special needs of the elderly, foreigners coming to China and other groups, and make good arrangements for aging and internationalization services to further enhance the convenience of mobile payment.
4. Better protect consumers’ right to pay. Business districts, tourist attractions, hotel accommodation and other key places above the scale must support diversified payment methods such as mobile payment, bank cards and cash, and the conditions for actively creating below the scale shall be handled with reference.
5. Banks and payment institutions should further optimize the account opening process, rationally implement classified management of accounts, and continuously improve the service level of accounts.
6. Carry out various and targeted publicity activities, and continuously strengthen the construction of "soft environment" such as publicity and promotion.
What measures will be introduced to facilitate the payment of foreign nationals in China?
People’s Bank of China:
1. In view of the low success rate of overseas bank cards bound by Alipay and WeChat, Alipay and Tenpay are required and instructed to optimize their business processes and improve the efficiency of card binding.
2. Simplify the arrangement of identity verification, so that foreigners in China can handle it more conveniently in a series of processes such as card binding. We are also very concerned about the protection of personal information. We will strictly require relevant institutions to implement the Personal Information Protection Law and other laws and regulations to effectively protect the security of personal information.
3. Instruct major payment institutions such as Alipay and Tenpay to increase the single transaction limit of mobile payment for foreigners coming to China from $1,000 to $5,000, and increase the annual cumulative transaction limit from $10,000 to $50,000.
What measures will be taken to optimize the payment service for inbound tourism?
Ministry of Culture and Tourism:
1. Promote the establishment of hardware and software facilities for accepting mobile payment, bank cards, cash, etc. in national scenic spots above 4A level, national tourist resorts, national night culture and tourism consumption gathering areas, and national tourist and leisure blocks, and facilitate the payment upgrade of key cultural and tourist scenes such as tourist attractions, resorts, cultural and cultural venues, entertainment venues, star-rated hotels, cultural and business complexes.
2. Guide and support Internet platform enterprises closely related to "food, housing, transportation, travel, shopping and entertainment", and optimize the payment experience for overseas visitors to purchase cultural and tourism products and services online and offline.
3. In terms of the convenience of ticket purchase in scenic spots, it will promote the reservation of artificial windows in scenic spots, and provide offline ticket purchase and other services for the majority of tourists, including the elderly and inbound tourists, to meet the needs of tourists to visit and visit to the maximum extent.
4. Simplify the online booking procedures to provide more convenience for tourists.
What has been done to adapt the payment service to aging?
National Development and Reform Commission:
In order to solve the "digital divide" of mobile payment faced by the elderly in their daily consumption, we will intensify the rectification and rectification of discriminatory behaviors such as refusing to accept cash and refusing to pay by bank cards. In 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission took the lead in drafting and reporting to the State Council for issuance and implementation of the Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Effectively Solving the Difficulties of the Elderly in Using Intelligent Technology, requiring any unit or individual not to refuse cash in any way, and strengthening the supervision of the payment market.
People’s Bank of China:
At present, the major mobile payment apps have been upgraded to adapt to aging. By simplifying the process, adding warm tips, increasing language broadcasts, enlarging font images, and manual customer service on special lines, the mobile payment service experience of the elderly group has been improved. More than 96% of the bank outlets in China have promoted aging transformation, and by upgrading self-service equipment and setting up "green channels" and "service areas" for elderly customers, it is convenient for the elderly group to handle payment and settlement business and create warm outlets.
What measures will be taken to continuously improve and improve the service level of transportation?
Ministry of Transport:
1. Enrich ticket purchasing channels. Accelerate the popularization of online ticket sales, promote the application of e-tickets, and facilitate domestic and foreign personnel to purchase tickets online with ID cards, passports, permanent residence cards for foreigners and other documents. At the same time, according to the payment habits of different groups, we will continue to retain the manual ticket window and manual ticket checking method to facilitate the elderly and foreign friends to purchase tickets offline.
2. Improve the payment method. Actively promote the major domestic car-sharing platform enterprises to expand payment channels, and some enterprises provide foreign friends with the service of "overseas mobile phone number registration+international credit card payment". Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and other cities support foreign friends to bind overseas bank cards through Alipay and China Unionpay Quick Pass, and use QR codes to scan codes to take urban public transport and rail transit.
3. Optimize the travel environment. We will promote the aging transformation of transportation, operate urban public transport with low floors and low entrances, equip the subway with barrier-free crossing boards, improve the multilingual signs of transportation hubs, and provide bilingual broadcasting and service guidance at qualified passenger routes and rail transit stations to facilitate the travel of the elderly and foreign friends. In key periods such as Spring Festival travel rush, some transportation hubs are equipped with special service personnel and volunteers to provide necessary help and guidance for the elderly and foreign friends.
4. Improve the service experience. Continue to promote the taxi 95128 telephone car service and the "one-click car call" service for online car service, and optimize the car rental process for foreigners. Actively carry out pilot projects of domestic waterway passenger quality routes to improve the service level of international cruise ships.
What measures will be taken to optimize foreign currency exchange services?
State Administration of Foreign Exchange:
1. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange will continue to promote more foreign currency exchange institutions to provide better exchange services for foreigners coming to China.
2. Ensure the foreign currency exchange service at the airport, and guide the priority arrangement of foreign currency exchange institutions and facilities at the airport arrival.
3. Ensure that ports, foreign-related hotels and other important scenes have at least one of five types of foreign currency exchange channels, which are mainly bank outlets with exchange marks, ATMs that support the use of overseas bank cards to withdraw cash, foreign currency exchange agencies authorized by banks, individual foreign currency exchange franchises, and some self-service exchange machines that can exchange foreign currencies by themselves.
4, in airports, ports, foreign-related hotels and other places to promote personal local and foreign currency exchange logo.
5. Encourage qualified individuals, local and foreign currency exchange franchises and bank outlets to expand the currency supply of foreign currency exchange to better meet the exchange needs of people from different countries and regions.
6. Further meet the mobile payment and online consumption needs of foreign visitors to China, continuously improve the existing business processes, and vigorously support the innovation of various safe and convenient payment service products.
What will be done to optimize payment services for the elderly and foreigners and promote the consumption of living services?
Ministry of Commerce:
1. Promote catering and other industries to improve the payment acceptance environment. We will work with relevant departments to formulate policy documents to promote the high-quality development of the catering industry, and guide local authorities to urge relevant catering business entities to retain manual services and traditional payment methods, and shall not refuse RMB cash.
2. Improve the industry standards of the retail industry and provide diversified payment services. Guide retail and other consumer places to provide diversified payment methods such as cash, bank cards and mobile payment to meet the payment needs of various consumer groups.
3. Give play to the exemplary leading role of international consumption center cities. We will guide Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Chongqing and other cities to actively promote the convenience of payment in the process of cultivating and building an international consumption center city, and create a good payment environment with multiple ways to choose from, multiple places to apply and multiple currencies to be convertible.
