Electronic Payment Service: Key Concepts and Legislative Choice

Electronic fund transfer normally only means fund transfer between accounts of financial institutions by electronic means while electronic payment broadly refers to payment by any electronic device and the legal connotation is not easy to be determined. Payment service is a suitable concept and China is advised to adopt ‘electronic payment service' in order to make a comparison with Negotiable Instruments Law. The concept should include all necessary services ‘managed', ‘facilitated' and ‘enabled' by providers while payment is executed by a ‘payment order initiated through electronic device directly'. The reason of Chinese failure in the WTO dispute of electronic payment service is monopoly of the market of information transmission in payment card, not improper interpretation of the panel.