The demand for companies to accommodate this transition of payment methods in the region has grown rapidly according to the authorities, macaudailytimes.com.mo reports. The authorities aim at explaining the existing regulation supporting such services, as well as the current licensing procedures and qualifications.
Wan Sin Long, an administrative committee member from the Monetary Authority of Macau (AMCM), told journalists that service providers whose clients’ money had already been deposited and paid to them were required to seek authorization to run their business. That means that payment services provided by companies that are not officially approved by local authorities are not subject to local regulation and there may be risks involved in using them.
Wan said that the regulator has approached the mainland service operators to learn more about their intentions for business development in the region. The aim of such talks is to connect local service providers with their mainland counterparts for a more e-commerce-friendly environment. In the meantime, AMCM has issued a statement saying that Alipay payments processor, which was launched in 2004 by the Chinese ecommerce company Alibaba Group Holding Limited and is now managed by its affiliated company, is suitable for a local ecommerce platform.
The authorities reassured the public that its operation in Macau was legal through the company’s collaboration with a locally authorized institution. The provision of third-party payment services in Macau has been a hot topic since 2014. However, it remains arguable that the application thresholds for such operations are usually deemed to be too high for small and medium-sized firms, while the size of the local market fails to pique the interest of large service providers from abroad.
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