The PBOC (People’s Bank of China) and SAMR (State Administration for Market Regulation) have jointly announced a new nationwide certification system for fintech products.
The move is said to be aimed at implementing an August State Council decision on “promoting the establishment of a management system [for fintech] based on standards leadership, corporate responsibility, and government supervision.”
The adoption of the certification system is intended to strengthen fintech security and quality management, and effectively prevent risks arising from technical product quality defects from being transmitted to the financial sector, the PBOC said.
The system will be used to certify 11 types of fintech products, including client software, security chips, ATMs, POS terminals, barcode payment acceptance terminals, voiceprint recognition systems, and cloud computing platforms, among others.
For certification, fintech products will be subject to testing and inspection for safety, quality assurance and product consistency.
Even after a certificate is issued (valid for three years), the certified party will be subject to ongoing supervision to ensure the product continues to meet requirements, including through on-site inspections.
The frequency of these reviews may increase if the certified product has serious quality problems, its users have filed complaints.
