China’s PICC gets approval to set up online payment firm

A unit of People’s Insurance Company of China Co (PICC), one of China’s biggest insurers, has received regulatory approval to set up a third-party payment firm, challenging banks for control of the crucial market. The China Insurance Regulatory Commission said on Monday it granted PICC Life Insurance Co permission to invest 200 million yuan ($32.3 million) to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary, Beijing Baofutong Ltd, according to an online notice posted by the insurance regulator. The PICC unit still requires to get approval from the central bank and comply with legal procedures to set up a third-party payment service, the notice said.

Read more

China arrests environmental reporter suspected of extortion

(This version of the story corrects paragraph four to give alleged profit as more than 6 million yuan instead of 600 million yuan.) BEIJING (Reuters) – Beijing police have arrested an environmental reporter and his associates in an apparent extortion scandal, as China works to crack down on corruption in the news media. A string of corruption scandals in China’s news media has shaken the faith of the public in the largely state-controlled industry and in response, the media regulator unveiled tougher rules last year. The group’s ringleader, surnamed Chen, is accused of blackmailing businesses into paying hundreds of thousands of yuan to delete embarrassing online reports about their activities on a website for environmental news, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Read more