Good evening fintech friends,

Hope everyone had a great holiday. Below, you’ll find this week's updates on China's economy, regulations, and fintech news. Please feel free to reach out if you have any topics, news, or comments to share.

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Licensing & Regulations 

• Following the PwC's $62M fine, China has implemented new regulations to tighten scrutiny of foreign accounting firms operating domestically.With the new regulations, these firms are subject to "supervision and management" by the authorities and must submit annual business plans and reports.  
• China has refined its ratings framework for consumer finance companies, introducing a new five-level rating system to enhance supervision and risk management in the sector.
• China has expanded its pilot cash-pooling program for multinational corporations, adding Jiangsu and Hainan provinces to the existing regions. Launched in March 2021 by the PBOC and SAFE, this program allows eligible multinationals to integrate their domestic and foreign currency cash pools, streamlining their treasury management and foreign currency purchases. 
• The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) issued a new operational resilience requirement mandating that all retail banks be able to quickly switch to an alternative credit reference agency (CRA) in the event of a service disruption at their primary CRA.
• HKEX has proposed enhancing its IPO pricing flexibility mechanism by allowing issuers to set the final IPO price up to 10% above the indicative offer price range, in order to remain competitive on the IPO market. 

Product & Partnership Launches

• XTransfer and OCBC partnered to optimize payments in Singapore, HK, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
• UnionPay International partnered with WeChat Pay, allowing users of eight UnionPay-powered international wallets to scan WeChat QR codes in mainland China.
• Iraq's Qi has teamed up with Ant International to launch the SuperQi app, which offers a range of services including scan-to-pay, money transfers, bill payments, loans, and mobile recharges.
• Ria Money Transfer has partnered with Tencent, allowing users to send remittances to WeChat Pay balances or linked bank accounts worldwide.
• South Korea’s Naver has partnered with WeChat Pay to offer a Naver Pay mobile pay using QR codes across China.

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