Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

”I put my entire semester’s living expenses into Yu’e Bao. Earning a few yuan a day is way better than letting it sit in my bank account!”

”A few yuan a day? Looks like we have a Brother Fu here! Send me 50 yuan and show me what you’ve got!”

To be fair, for the vast majority of the working class, the few tens of thousands of yuan they had on hand usually just sat in their bank accounts collecting dust, not generating a single cent of interest.

The moment Yu’e Bao launched, it provided these people with an investment channel for their small sums of money.

As soon as users opened Orange Pay, they saw the slogan: ”Move your spare change to Yu’e Bao for returns 14 times higher than a regular savings account.”

Even cash-strapped college students were putting their living expenses into Yu’e Bao. Over a month, they could earn enough to at least buy breakfast.

Yu’e Bao’s high-profile launch sent shockwaves through the industry.

Even its partner, Sky Rich Fund, was stunned to learn that Yu’e Bao’s fund inflows had already reached 10 billion.

’Had internet finance actually succeeded?’

The collision of tens of millions of users’ worth of traffic with a money market fund had actually produced such astonishing results.

After all, domestic fund companies ranged in size from a few billion to a few tens of billions. At Yu’e Bao’s current growth rate, even 100 billion might not be its limit.

It wasn’t just fund industry professionals who were shocked; even the senior executives at major banks were rattled.

The people who made it to senior management at the banks were no fools. They quickly realized the threat Yu’e Bao posed to their own savings products.

But they were helpless. After all, Orange Pay had both an electronic payment license and a fund sales license, making it fully compliant and legal.

However, some extremely sharp individuals noticed something. Yu’e Bao allowed users to purchase fund products with their regular spending accounts. This violated a rule in the Fund Sales Management Regulations stating that ”fund payment and settlement accounts must be effectively isolated from other accounts.”

In other words, when a third-party payment tool simultaneously handled both e-commerce and fund sale payments, the two account types were supposed to be kept separate. Yu’e Bao, however, had broken through this restriction.

Furthermore, the promotions on Kuai Pao, Fast Taxi, and Pinbei Mall that gave away Yu’e Bao trial funds for placing orders or adding funds to a card also violated a regulation. This rule stated that one ”may not use methods such as lotteries, rebates, or giving away physical goods, insurance, or fund shares to sell funds.”

Although these three companies had no equity stake in Orange Pay, they shared the same boss, which meant they had naturally crossed a red line.

Instantly, jealous fund companies and banks filed a joint complaint against Orange Pay’s practices with the Bank Association and the Fund Management Association, demanding immediate corrective action.

But to their surprise, the authorities didn’t agree.

”Orange Pay has indeed violated regulations and crossed red lines, but it hasn’t broken the law. Moreover, Yu’e Bao’s sales momentum is strong. I think Chen Yansen can blaze a new trail for internet finance.”

”I hear Ali Baba in Hang City is planning to launch a similar money market fund product. They’ve even registered the name... what was it? Lingqiantong?”

”Penguin in Shencheng City has its eye on this business too!”

”That’s why I say we should let Orange Pay proceed. Whether it’s a good or bad thing, we can’t tell for sure right now, so let’s just wait and see.”

In Yanjing, inside the Bank Association Building, a few industry titans rejected the complaint against Orange Pay after a brief discussion.

The implication was clear: You can do it too.

But they wouldn’t issue any clear regulations. If it proved successful, then the Bank Association had provided sound guidance. If it caused a mess, they would be crushed without mercy.

With this, the ”T+1” fund redemption mechanism was effectively dead. As long as a platform used a pre-funded float, it could bypass the regulation and turn a money market fund into an ”instant deposit and withdrawal” investment, just like a savings account.

Of course, some people piped up, saying, ”Money market fund returns may be stable, but they still carry risks. They aren’t as safe as a bank’s fixed-term deposits.”

But these voices were quickly drowned out.