Asia-Pacific · GDP rank #2

China

CN · CNY @ 0.1471/USD

The only major economy where third-party mobile wallets displaced cards as the primary consumer rail. Alipay and WeChat Pay together clear the overwhelming majority of retail volume; UnionPay remains the dominant card network behind the scenes. The e-CNY is the most-piloted retail CBDC in the world but remains a fraction of total flow; the January 2026 framework revision moves it from cash-equivalent toward interest-bearing digital deposit money. State policy since 2020 has reined in big-tech finance and pushed the sector toward regulated, state-supervised infrastructure.

Tab 06

Fraud & security

Headline fraud totals and typology splits, the rollout of EMV chip, tokenisation, 3DS and biometrics, and the controlling data-protection and payments statutes.

Annual fraud losses

¥4.2B

CNY · 2023

Loss rate

~1.6bp

bp on card transaction value · 2023

CNP share of fraud

~58%

% · 2023

Fraud typology

Where losses come from

Card-not-present dominates every developed-market fraud profile — counterfeit and lost/stolen have both been mechanically suppressed by EMV and tokenisation over the last decade.

Share of card fraud

  • Telecom / online scam + transfer fraud~65%
  • CNP card fraud58%

Authentication

What's deployed on cards today

EMV is the floor; tokenisation removes PAN from merchant systems; 3DS covers the CNP flow; biometric auth drives device-level wallet transactions. Adoption gaps between markets are the clearest signal of fraud-regime maturity.

EMV chip penetration

100%

% · 2024

Tokenised transactions

~30%

% · 2024

3DS coverage · CNP

~85%

% · 2024

Real-name authentication + SMS OTP + biometric is standard for wallet and card CNP.

Biometric mobile wallet txns

~90%

% · 2024

Consumer protection

Framework
PBOC Payment Services Regulation + Consumer Rights Protection Law
Max consumer liability
No explicit statutory cap; PBOC guidance expects institutions to absorb unauthorised-transaction losses on verified accounts
Liability rules
Unauthorised transactions on real-name-verified accounts are investigated by PBOC-supervised institutions; liability allocation follows the Non-Bank Payment Institutions Regulation (2024). Scam losses are addressed under the Anti-Telecom Fraud Law, which obliges banks and payment institutions to delay suspicious transfers and supports victim recovery through a state-run fund.

Source · State Council

Security standards

  • PCI DSS 4.0 (UnionPay-acquired merchants)
  • PBOC Payment Institution Risk Rating system
  • Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) data rules
  • Anti-Telecom and Online Fraud Law (2022, in force)