Financial Science： Are the balances of WeChat and Alipay the same as bank deposits？

　　"Some time ago, Yu ‘ebao adjusted the upper limit of the personal trading account to 100,000 yuan. I was stunned. I was originally planning to deposit 200,000 yuan in the bank card into Yu ‘ebao. The interest on this money in the bank is too low to be worthwhile; Take it to invest, but I am afraid of risks. Yu’ ebao is indeed a good choice. " What Xue Shao, who has just worked for a short time, doesn’t understand most is why there is an upper limit on the deposit amount of Yu ‘ebao, but there is no deposit in the bank account. Is there any difference between the two?

　　With the maturity of Internet payment technologies such as Yu ‘ebao and WeChat Licaitong, more and more young people choose to deposit their spare money in payment accounts. On the surface, there is no difference between putting money in the bank and putting it on Yu ‘ebao and Licaitong: users have personal payment accounts, which are paid at the same time, and the latter can get much higher income than bank deposits.

　　What many people don’t know is that the balance in payment accounts such as Yu ‘ebao and Licaitong is not the same as bank deposits.

　　First of all, from the subject of providing account services, payment accounts such as Yu ‘ebao were originally opened by payment institutions for the convenience of customers’ online payment, and were mainly used for payment settlement of e-commerce transactions. Bank accounts are opened by banking financial institutions for customers for payment, settlement, preservation and appreciation. The two account opening entities are different.

　　Secondly, from the nature of account fund balance, bank deposit is the creditor’s rights of various organizations (including various enterprises, institutions, organizations) and individuals to the bank, which can be withdrawn or transferred according to the agreed conditions, and from the bank’s point of view, it is a debt to depositors.

　　Payment account balance is not a bank’s debt to depositors, but a monetary fund in essence. Take Yu ‘ebao as an example. It is a balance appreciation service launched by Alipay. Its essence is to buy a money fund named "Zenglibao" provided by Tianhong Fund. In the process of users transferring funds to Yu ‘ebao, Alipay and fund companies can complete the process of fund account opening and fund purchase for users in one stop through the system docking, and there is no charge for using Yu ‘ebao to manage money.

　　The Administrative Measures for Online Payment Services of Non-bank Payment Institutions issued by the People’s Bank of China further illustrates the difference between the balance of payment accounts and bank deposits: the balance of funds recorded in payment accounts is different from the customer’s own bank deposits and is not protected by the Deposit Insurance Regulations, and its essence is the prepaid value entrusted by the payment institution for the customer and the ownership belongs to the customer. Although the monetary fund corresponding to the prepaid value belongs to the customer, it is not deposited in the bank in the name of the customer himself, but in the name of the payment institution, and the payment institution initiates the fund allocation instruction to the bank. That is to say, the payment institution deposits the balance of the payment account in its own name in the bank, and it is actually controlled and controlled by the payment institution. This balance is not protected by the deposit insurance regulations. Once the payment institution has operational risk or credit risk, it may lead to customer property loss.

　　Compared with bank deposits, the balance of payment account is more risky and the income is more uncertain. As a monetary fund, Yu ‘ebao and Licaitong are open-end funds that mainly invest in short-term money market instruments. Besides bank deposit certificates, their investment scope also includes short-term marketable securities such as government bonds, central bank bills, commercial bills and corporate bonds with high credit rating. They are supervised by China Securities Regulatory Commission and have the characteristics of high liquidity and low threshold, and the risk of losses is relatively low.

　　After recognizing the difference between the bank account balance and the payment account balance, the public can deal with the funds in hand more purposefully. If you have some idle funds and you are not sure whether you need them in the short term, it is recommended to buy Yu ‘ebao or Licaitong in case of emergency. However, if you have a large amount of money and are unwilling to take risks, it is still recommended to put it in a bank account.