(Yicai Global) Feb. 20 -- Shares in Zhejiang China Commodities City Group surged by the exchange-imposed limit today after the e-commerce services provider to the world’s largest wholesale market for small commodities in Yiwu introduced an online payment platform, meaning that the wholesale hub now has its own global payment system.

China Commodities City’s share price [SHA:600415] closed up 10 percent at CNY5.38 (USD0.78).

YiwuPay will enable over 900,000 businesses as well as 2.1 million micro and small companies located in the city in southeastern Zhejiang province to conduct crossborder payments, said China Commodities City, which is under the state-owned assets supervision and administration commission of Yiwu.

YiwuPay has already partnered with over 400 banks worldwide, can perform transactions in 16 of the world’s biggest currencies and can be used in more than 100 countries and regions, said Zhang Wenjing, executive in charge of YiwuPay.

YiwuPay is able to carry out real-time monitoring of the whole transaction process, so as to guarantee the financial safety of market entities and the secure reception of payments, she said.

YiwuPay is an upgraded version of third-party payment company Kuaijie Tong, which China Commodities City took over to secure a license for online payment services. It also gained the permit to collect and store personal credit information and the license to conduct factoring business, a type of debtor finance.

Vendors in the small commodities capital conduct frequent business with international clients, but often there are trade disputes. Also, banks’ crackdown on money laundering in recent years, has increased the cost of risk control for local traders who usually deal with fragmented foreign trade orders.

Last year, some 176 countries and regions carried out cross-border transactions in Chinese yuan amounting to CNY56.5 billion (USD8.2 billion), a gain of 56.2 percent from the year before.

Editors: Liao Shumin, Kim Taylor