Central bank drafting regulation on mobile payment

The People's Bank of China, the central bank, is drafting a regulation to guide the development of the mobile payment industry, an official from the bank said on Tuesday.

The bank will formulate rules to guide the mobile payment sector, encourage greater cooperation and boost development of the market, said Fan Shuangwen, deputy director of the bank's payment and settlement department.

It is impossible for one service provider to cover all segments of the mobile payment industry, said Fan.

More consumers are making payments via mobile devices and the size of the market is expected to exceed 800 billion yuan ($130.4 billion) this year, more than five times the volume in 2012, according to a report released in November by a research group headed by Bad Sousing, analyst with the Development Research Center of the State Council.