Deputy Governor Lu Lei Discusses the Clear Boundaries of Responsibility in Agent Payments and the Upcoming Release of Self-Regulatory Conventions, Agreements, and Standards

On August 31, Lu Lei, a member of the Party Committee and Deputy Governor of the People's Bank of China, stated at the 15th China Payment and Clearing Forum that the responsibilities between consumers, operating institutions, and algorithm systems in agent payments must not be blurred. Lu believes that the essence of payment is the transfer of ownership of funds, which objectively requires that the results of transactions are predictable, responsibilities are definable, and trajectories are traceable. Large models and autonomous agents exhibit characteristics such as randomness in output and lack of transparency in logic. Blindly or excessively granting transaction decision-making authority to agents will undermine the trust foundation of fund transactions. The current governance rules and dispute resolution mechanisms in the payment industry are constructed around "humans as the final decision-makers in transactions." The new model of agents automatically initiating and assisting in transactions easily blurs the boundaries of responsibility among consumers, operating institutions, and algorithm systems, necessitating optimization and improvement of existing governance rules.

Regarding the issue of insufficient compatibility of protocol standards in the field of agent payments, Lu emphasized that the dispute over protocols is essentially a contest of business rules and technical standards, as well as a struggle for dominance in the era of artificial intelligence. Initial incompatibility of standards is a normal phenomenon, but if this continues, it may lead to new barriers and exacerbate market competition, which is detrimental to enhancing the international competitiveness and voice of China's agent payment industry. "To promote the stable and orderly application of innovative technologies in the payment field, the People's Bank of China continues to strengthen its tracking research on technological innovation, especially in agent payments, guiding the Payment and Clearing Association to leverage its advantages in industry self-regulation. Based on extensive consultation, we will formulate and release the 'Self-Regulatory Convention for Agent Payment Applications' and will continue to focus on coordinating protocols and standards, as well as innovating risk governance," Lu stated. He also expressed three hopes to market institutions:

1. Actively respond to and implement the industry self-regulatory convention, using payment security and risk prevention as the baseline, protecting consumer rights as the focal point, standardizing processes, and improving internal controls, while releasing technological efficiency under the premise of maintaining the baseline;
2. Continuously track the trends of cutting-edge technologies such as large models and agents both domestically and internationally, and build technological reserves and application capabilities;
3. Adhere to the principle of prioritizing rules and standards, strengthen coordination and compatibility between different protocols and standards, and cooperate with regulatory authorities to promote the construction of a foundational protocol and technical standard system for agent payments, reinforcing the dominance of rules and standards.

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