In mid-2018, the Chinese authorities sharply tightened their regulation of payment firms, seemingly bringing to an end an ‘easy money’ era, while also restricting the ability of third-party payment providers to profit from earning interest on client funds. The shift in stance came after years of loose oversight that facilitated explosive growth in the country’s payment system. While technology firms such as Alipay and WeChat Pay have helped China leapfrog card-based payment systems by using