How to check a payment intermediary before paying a Chinese supplier
Editorial illustration
GURI Journal · Published 31 October 2026
A payment intermediary may offer an apparently simple answer to a complicated procurement problem: send one amount, pay one fee and let someone else handle the transfer. Before accepting, you need to understand what the service actually does. A trading agent, a regulated payment provider and an introducer to another firm can have very different roles, even when their marketing uses similar language.
GURI assesses the proposed arrangement against the underlying purchase. The relevant questions are who contracts with your company, who receives funds, who sends them onward and what evidence connects the result to your supplier’s invoice. Speed claims and testimonials cannot answer those questions on their own.
Establish the legal entity behind the offer
Obtain the contracting entity’s full name, registration details, jurisdiction and contact information. Compare these with the agreement, invoice, website and receiving account instructions. Where a brand is used, identify the company operating behind it. Where a different entity receives money, establish why it is involved.
Use official records appropriate to the jurisdiction and the activity. A company registration can help establish identity, but it does not prove permission to carry out every type of financial service. Equally, do not assume that every commercial intermediary falls into the same regulatory category. The actual activities need to be understood first.
Verify that you are dealing with the genuine organisation, not someone borrowing its name or documents. Keep the source of the contact information and resolve unexplained differences. A real company can exist while a particular payment request purporting to come from it is false.
Describe the service in operational terms
Ask the provider to explain each stage: the account receiving your funds, any conversion, the onward payer, the final beneficiary and the records produced. You do not need marketing terminology to describe this. You need a sequence that can be reconciled with the agreements and the supplier’s expectations.
Clarify whether the intermediary acts for your company, for another provider or in a different contractual capacity. If it says that a licensed partner handles the payment, identify that partner and the limits of the intermediary’s role. A reference to a well-known institution is not evidence that the offered activity is covered by that institution’s permissions.
The supplier’s position matters too. Establish how it will recognise a payment arriving from another entity and what documentation it requires. A technically successful transfer can still leave a commercial dispute if the seller cannot allocate the receipt to your purchase.
Check the relevant permissions and their scope
The checks depend on where the service is provided and what the firm actually does. For a UK-regulated arrangement, the FCA explains how to check a firm’s status, permitted activities and agents through its authorisation guidance. This is a UK example, not a licensing rule for every intermediary worldwide.
Read the relevant entry rather than relying on a screenshot of a certificate or a registration number. Check the legal entity, current status and the service being offered. If an agent claims to act for another firm, verify the relationship and permitted activities with the appropriate principal through a reliable contact.
For another jurisdiction, use the corresponding official framework and obtain qualified advice where the structure is unclear. The practical objective is to connect the proposed conduct to the required authority. Collecting documents without understanding which activity they cover leaves the central question unresolved.
Understand what happens to money before the supplier receives it
Ask whether the provider holds funds, for how long and under what arrangement. Find out what protections apply and what happens if the provider fails. Do not treat a payment account as identical to a bank deposit merely because the service looks familiar.
The FCA’s guide to payment service providers distinguishes UK bank and non-bank arrangements and their protections. In particular, safeguarding should not be read as a guarantee of immediate, full repayment in every failure. Apply the relevant rules to the actual provider and service rather than importing a general claim from another market.
For the transaction itself, clarify when the provider considers funds received and when its onward obligation begins. This prevents an estimated delivery time from starting at a different event from the one your procurement team has assumed.
Compare a complete price
Request the fee, conversion method, possible deductions, additional service charges and the amount expected at the supplier. Record the quotation’s validity and conditions. Two offers with the same percentage can have materially different total costs if they use different exchange rates or allocate external fees differently.
Ask what can change after you approve the quotation and who must authorise the change. A transparent process should explain the effect of a revised date, amount or beneficiary. If a cost cannot be fixed in advance, it should remain an identified uncertainty rather than disappear into a headline price.
Agree evidence, enquiries and failed-payment handling
Specify the records expected at submission, onward payment and completion. The provider’s report should be capable of reconciliation with available banking information and the supplier’s confirmation. A generic screenshot with no link to your transaction may not be enough to establish the result you need.
Discuss delays, rejection and return before committing funds. Who investigates, what information is available, and how are the destination, currency and costs of a return determined? Some events depend on institutions outside the intermediary’s control. A contractual promise should make those dependencies understandable, not conceal them behind an unconditional arrival claim.
Do not assume that a small successful test proves every future transaction will work. It demonstrates a particular outcome at a particular time. Larger amounts, different parties or changed conditions still require review, and a test does not substitute for checking the provider’s identity and authority.
Make a decision that can be reviewed later
Keep the agreement, verified entity information, explanation of roles, approved price and evidence requirements together. Record any unresolved issue and who must answer it. If a material fact changes, reopen the relevant check instead of treating the original approval as permanent.
For a discussion with GURI, bring the proposed agreement and a plain description of the payment sequence. That makes it possible to identify missing connections between the commercial obligation, the intermediary’s work and the expected receipt. The useful outcome is an arrangement whose responsibilities and evidence can be examined, not simply a persuasive promise that money will arrive.