Maverick China Research - Maverick China Research

In our previous post about the new license requirements for third-party payment providers in China, we stated that we expected the largest companies to face little trouble in getting licenses. It is still unclear how the regulations will affect 99Bill, however. Just around the time the PBOC's statement was released, a 99Bill executive was arrested for transferring funds of over RMB 3 billion to an offshore gambling syndicate, according to a report (Chinese) by the Ministry of Public Security. 99Bill, however, has issued a response (Chinese) decrying what they describe as "media reports" and claiming that the man arrested is not a high level executive in their company. The details are still murky and it is not clear whether this matter will impact 99Bill's eligibility for a license. We'll continue to monitor the situation.