CHINA'S central bank yesterday approved the second group of 13 non-financial institutions, including ChinaPay and Union Mobile Pay, to operate third-party payment services.

Most of the 13 institutions are located in less developed inland regions or provinces such as Inner Mongolia and Sichuan and they handle prepayment card services.

The first batch of 27 companies acquired the licenses to run third-party payment services in June.

"Price competition among companies offering third-party payment services will be fiercer and companies have to diversify their target and services," said Zhang Meng, a researcher at Analysys International.

In the second quarter, third-party payment spread to new areas such as education, funds, and logistics services, Zhang added.

The total size of China's online payment market was worth 460.9 billion yuan (US$72.3 billion) in the second quarter, 16 percent higher than the first quarter and 95.3 percent higher than last year. Alipay has 45.5 percent of the market, Tenpay's 21.2 percent and China UnionPay's 11.1 percent, Analysys International said.

Analysts forecast the annual transaction volume for third-party payments will exceed 3 trillion yuan in the next three years.

The People's Bank of China ruled last June that all third-party payment service providers must gain a new business license from it by yesterday. Failure to do so will see the services shut down.

But analysts estimated that the PBOC may postpone the deadline and offer more licenses ''gradually."

"More than 170 companies have gone through the procedures by August 30 but only 13 were approved this time," said Zhang.

"The central bank is short of time to examine and approve all the applications," he said.