Alipay says no reserve order

Alipay, China's leading online payment platform, told the Global Times Tuesday that the company did not get any notice from the nation's banking regulator about setting aside reserves, in response to market rumors that the central bank has clarified that China's money-market funds, including Alipay's Yu'ebao, should be subject to reserve requirements just like traditional bank deposits.

Yu'ebao is a monetary fund developed by Alipay and it offers higher returns than bank deposits.

According to news portal caijing.com on Tuesday, the central bank has not decided the quota for the money-market funds yet, but will do so after collecting feedback from banks and Yu'ebao.

In March, Sheng Songcheng, head of statistics at the People's Bank of China, said in an article that reserve requirements should also be applied to monetary funds.