The People's Bank of China (PBOC) might authorize non-financial organizations by the end of 2010 to run the third-party payment business, Beijing News reported Tuesday, citing an official.

Non-financial organizations that run the third-party payment business, regardless of whether State-owned or private, need only to follow the regulations and apply for licenses, said Ouyang Weimin, director of the payment system department of the PBOC.

The number of organizations approved for third-party operations will not be limited. "Non-financial organizations need room to develop, and banks need some sense of competition in this field," Ouyang said.

The application itself can take a month to approve, and a company might have to take a month to prepare files in advance, but the PBOC has not announced details yet, the newspaper reported, citing an anonymous executive at a company operating a third-party payment business.

Another unnamed executive at a company running a 100-million-yuan ($15 million) third-party payment business said his company expects to receive its license after the Spring Festival, which falls on Feb 3, 2011.

The PBOC in June issued an administration regulation telling non-financial organizations to obtain licenses for third-party payment, and banned the third-party payment without licenses, also banning third-party business operations in disguised form.

The central bank on Sept 21 published a draft of the measures and solicited comments from the public.