Alipay, Tenpay to Fork Out Fines for Sketchy Forex Practices

(Yicai Global) July 25 — China’s foreign exchange regulator has fined the firms behind the country’s two biggest payment platforms, Alipay and Tenpay, for irregularities in cross-border transactions.

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange fined Alipay China Internet Technology, an Alibaba subsidiary, CNY600,000 (USD88,221) for conducting cross-border payments outside of its permitted scope and erroneously declaring its payment balance from January 2014 to May 2015, the watchdog said in an online statement yesterday.

Tencent Payment Technology was fined the same amount for not logging cross-border payments for non-residents with authorities and failing to submit reports on abnormal risks between January 2015 and June 2017.

SAFE has been monitoring big financial firms, including banks and third-party institutions, to crack down on forex-related rulebreaking this year, it said. The regulator investigated 1,354 irregularities in the first half, up 20 percent from the same period last year, while imposing fines worth CNY345 million (USD50.7 million), 60 percent more than a year earlier.

Editor: James Boynton