Third-party payment regulation halted

China's central bank is not likely to roll out a new third-party payment regulation any time soon and the final version may be different from the current draft, media reports said Thursday.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) Wednesday held a meeting with experts as well as leading companies in the sector to discuss the regulation on third-party payment, newspaper Beijing News reported Thursday.

PBOC noted that the current draft still needs further discussion and improvement, thus it is unlikely to roll out the regulation soon, the report said.

According to a draft reported by media early this week, each purchase made through third-party payment tools should not exceed 5,000 yuan ($803) and monthly spending should not exceed 10,000 yuan.

The draft also said that single money transfers via third-party payment services should not surpass 1,000 yuan and total transfers each year should be less than 10,000 yuan.

The draft, if put into effect, would potentially inconvenience users as third-party payment tools have been gaining in popularity and affect companies running the services.

An online survey conducted by the Beijing-based China Youth Daily newspaper Thursday showed that about 84.7 percent of 10,234 respondents have invested in Internet wealth management products, many of which are operated by third-party payment companies.

Alibaba's Alipay, China's largest third-party payment tool by market share, has gained nearly 300 million users by the end of 2013 and 100 million of them are mobile Internet users, the company said in February.

The company announced Thursday that mobile payment has surpassed 25 million deals each day.

"So far the operation (of Alipay) is well on track," Zhang Daosheng, a spokesman for Alipay, told the Global Times.

He also noted that the draft is not the final version and the company has been communicating with the authorities.

Tencent did not reply to calls by Global Times Thursday. But the company said Tuesday via its instant messaging platform WeChat that it is also communicating with the central bank and has given suggestions.

Internet finance firms have encountered a few setbacks recently.

At the end of February, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China imposed a limit of 5,000 yuan on each online quick transfer.

The seven-day annualized rate for Yu'ebao continued dropping to reach 5.544 percent Thursday from 6.001 percent on March 1.

Zhang said the rates are returning to a rational level with the liquidity pressure eased, and the decline is not a result of the recent negative news.

Calls to the central bank went unanswered on Thursday.