Fines Nearing 100 Million Yuan Imposed on 15 Payment Institutions This Year, with Top Penalty Reaching 38.43 Million Yuan

The regulatory stance in the third-party payment industry remains stringent in 2026.

On May 9, two payment institutions were penalized. Leshua Payment received a warning, public criticism, and a combined confiscation and fine totaling 8,439,503.67 yuan due to eight violations. Xinsheng Payment was given a warning, public criticism, and fined 660,000 yuan for three violations.

These penalties are not isolated cases. Approximately 15 institutions have been fined this year, with total penalties nearing 100 million yuan. In terms of the penalty amount, Kailiantong Payment tops the list with a combined confiscation and fine of 38,434,900 yuan.

On May 12, a senior financial industry analyst noted that common violations persist across the industry. Some payment institutions have expanded their acquiring business rapidly, leading to situations where compliance construction lags behind business development.

Multiple Institutions Fined Within the Year

The public notice shows that Leshua Payment was warned, publicly criticized, and faced a combined confiscation and fine of 8,439,503.67 yuan.

According to the penalty notice, Leshua Payment was involved in eight violations: 1. Failure to allocate personnel appropriately based on business scale and money laundering risk; 2. Failure to conduct proper customer due diligence; 3. Failure to implement corresponding money laundering risk management measures for high-risk scenarios; 4. Failure to report suspicious transactions as required; 5. Providing services and conducting transactions for unidentified clients; 6. Failure to establish and improve transaction monitoring standards as required; 7. Violation of merchant management regulations; 8. Violation of clearing management regulations.

Additionally, an individual surnamed Sun, formerly employed at Leshua Payment Technology Co., Ltd., was held responsible for the failure to allocate personnel appropriately based on business scale and money laundering risk and was fined 55,000 yuan.

Leshua Payment was established in 2013 and initially received investment from institutions including Tencent. It obtained the "Payment Business License" issued by the People's Bank of China in 2014, with business types including Payment Transaction Processing Category I and II, valid "permanently." Leshua Payment uses mobile payment services as an entry point to provide various industry merchants with payment platforms, merchant operation SaaS services, data marketing, fintech, and artificial intelligence products and services.

The penalty against Leshua Payment is not an isolated case. Since 2026, regulatory oversight in the third-party payment industry has maintained a normalized trend, guiding the industry toward standardized and orderly development. Penalties issued to third-party payment institutions this year range from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of yuan.

In January alone, two institutions received penalties exceeding ten million yuan. Kailiantong Payment faced confiscation of illegal gains amounting to 25,557,200 yuan and a fine of 12,877,700 yuan, totaling 38,434,900 yuan for seven business violations. In the same month, Yinsheng Payment was warned, publicly criticized, and faced a combined confiscation and fine of 15,841,700 yuan for multiple violations. This is not the first time Yinsheng Payment has received a penalty exceeding ten million yuan. In March 2022, it was penalized 22.45 million yuan for failing to fulfill customer identification obligations and retain customer identity information and transaction records as required.

In February, penalty information from the People's Bank of China Shenzhen Branch showed that Kuaifutong Payment was warned, publicly criticized, and faced a combined confiscation and fine of approximately 1,271,100 yuan for violations of merchant management, account management, and clearing regulations. On April 30, the People's Bank of China's public notice on the renewal of "Payment Business Licenses" for non-bank payment institutions indicated that Kuaifutong Payment's renewal application was suspended.

In the same month, the People's Bank of China Fujian Branch imposed penalties. Fujian Xingyi Payment was warned, had illegal gains of approximately 3,421,900 yuan confiscated, and was fined 5.05 million yuan for violating acquiring business regulations and conducting transactions with unidentified clients. An individual surnamed Lin from the company was warned and fined 190,000 yuan for responsibility in these violations. Additionally, Haikerongtong Guizhou Branch was warned, publicly criticized, had illegal gains of 193,898.86 yuan confiscated, and was fined 1.58 million yuan for violating clearing management regulations.

In March, multiple penalty notices from the People's Bank of China Chongqing Branch showed that Chongqing Kunpeng Payment was warned, publicly criticized, had illegal gains of 1,007,000 yuan confiscated, and was fined 8,136,500 yuan for 11 violations. Furthermore, Chongqing Yijifu was warned, publicly criticized, had illegal gains of 503,900 yuan confiscated, and was fined 5,269,500 yuan for six violations.

The content of the penalty notices reveals that some institutions exhibit clear patterns of repeated violations and recurring issues. Problems such as non-standard merchant management, irregular transaction information management, and clearing regulation violations frequently appear in regulatory penalties across regions, exposing shortcomings in compliance system implementation and branch management.

It is believed that repeated penalties against an institution generally reflect a long-term emphasis on business over compliance, where compliance system construction and personnel allocation may have consistently failed to keep pace with business expansion, leading to superficial implementation of multiple basic compliance systems.

Another senior researcher analyzed that, based on the reasons for penalties, anti-money laundering and merchant management remain key areas of violations for payment institutions. This indicates that穿透式监管 has become the norm in the payment industry, also signifying that industry consolidation is accelerating.

Revenue and Net Profit Both Increase

Leshua Payment is an institution under the Hong Kong-listed company YEAHKA (09923). Financial reports show that in 2025, YEAHKA achieved revenue of 3.311 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.3%. Its overseas payment business, an important sector in YEAHKA's recent布局, recorded a Gross Payment Volume (GPV) of approximately 5 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 323.3%, with overseas payment fee rates and gross margins around 60 basis points and 50%, respectively.

Compared to the same period last year, YEAHKA's gross profit increased by 8.1% to 788 million yuan in 2025; net profit attributable to shareholders was 92.24 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.9%. This was primarily driven by simultaneous growth in gross profit and gross margin from its one-stop payment and value-added services.

Benefiting from significantly higher fee rates in overseas markets compared to domestic ones and a recovery in domestic fee rates, YEAHKA's overall fee rate increased from 11.5 basis points in the same period last year to 12.4 basis points in 2025, driving its one-stop payment revenue up by 8.0% to 2.902 billion yuan during the year.

It is suggested that YEAHKA should continue to consolidate its domestic one-stop payment service foundation, leverage AI technology to optimize merchant solutions and in-store e-commerce services, enhance business gross margin and customer stickiness. For its overseas operations, it should steadily expand into high-potential markets, increase the scale of cross-border payment business, and build a comprehensive service system.

Two key points require attention during the company's development: first, regulatory policies vary across different overseas regions, with compliance requirements becoming increasingly strict, necessitating vigilance against cross-border合规风险; second, during overseas business expansion, a balance must be struck between expansion speed and service quality to avoid盲目扩张 leading to a decline in service experience.