Tenpay, the Internet payment subsidiary of Chinese technology firm Tencent, and American Express have reached an agreement to jointly provide Internet payment services to Tenpay's overseas users who purchase goods from American Express vendors.

Chinese social networking website Renren.com has announced that it will launch an interest-free housing scheme, and employees can apply for loans of between CNY200,000 and CNY400,000.

Alipay.com, the Internet payment subsidiary of the Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba, has announced that it has launched a new convenient Internet payment service.

Rumors on the Internet revealed that the Chinese B2B e-commerce group Alibaba has set up a commercial bank subsidiary, which has gained the approvals of the People's Bank of China and China Banking Regulatory Commission.

The People's Bank of China's second generation Internet payment system, which is also know as the super online banking system, has been formally launched in Shenzhen, Tianjin, Beijing, and Guangzhou.

According to Ouyang Weimin, director of Payment System Department of the People's Bank of China, PBOC plans to issue licenses to Chinese online third-party payment platforms to bring more competition and a higher level of security into this industry.

According to Qiu Changheng, vice president of Alipay, China's first e-commerce credit system is expected to be launched by the end of 2009 and the system will fully cover small and medium-sized enterprises and individual users.