Non-bank payment service providers such as Alipay and Paypal will be supervised by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) under new rules which will come into effect in September. They will have to apply for a license from the central bank within one year and be required to submit financial reports and client information, and if they take client deposits, they must set up a special reserve account at a commercial bank. The online payment market reached CNY555 billion on September 1 last year, up 135.6% from 2008. Non-bank payment service providers will need to have a registered capital of at least CNY100 million for a nationwide business license, and should have been making profits for two successive years. Separate rules will be issued for foreign-funded companies, which could face stricter requirements. The nation’s online payment market has been growing at more than 100% annually in the past five years. According to industry experts, there are more than 100 online payment companies in China, but there are also problems due to a lack of regulation. Alipay had a 52% share of the online payment market in 2009, followed by Tenpay, an online payment unit of Tencent, with 24.7%.