The announcements came following widespread concern amongst Chinese Internet that the big payments giants would replace the personal QR codes of individual users for payments receipt purposes, in response to new demands from Chinese financial regulators to better differentiate the QR code ecosystem.
In October 2021 the Chinese central bank issued its ‘People’s Bank of China Notice Concerning Strengthening Regulation of Payments Acceptance Terminals and Related Operations’. The notice, scheduled to come into effect on 1 March 2022, calls for providing commercial payments receipt QR codes to those individual users who engage in economic activity, which is distinctively commercial in character, as well as improvements to payments services for personal business operators.
The notice also prohibits the use of personal QR codes for long-distance, non-face-to-face payments receipts, as well as the sale or leasing of QR codes, or their use as a top-up channel for gambling activities.
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