China's central bank has created and launched the world's first online-payment clearinghouse, local news service Caixin reports. The new service - the Online Settlement Platform for Non-Bank Payment Institutions - will bring all of the 200 or more participants in China's 54 trillion yuan (A$10 trillion-plus) third-party payment market under a standard set of clearing protocols and rules, ending the long-standing practice that transactions from different companies are handled under different terms with banks, falling outside the central bank's oversight. The central bank and the Payment & Clearing Association of China jointly hold a 37 per cent stake in the new platform; the Alibaba Group-affiliated Alipay and Tencent Holding's Tenpay hold about ten per cent each; and the other online service providers own the remaining 43 per cent of the business, Caixin reported earlier this year.