The PBoC officially approved China’s largest online travel agency, Ctrip.com’s (携程) application to acquire Shanghai Oriental Information Technology Service Company (东方汇融) on September 26th. The wholly-owned acquisition provides Ctrip.com with the central bank's third-party payment license. Ctrip stated that it hopes that its acquisition can further “improve the convenience of payments in the cultural and tourism industry” and “accelerate the recovery of China’s tourism industry,” which has been badly hit by the Covid pandemic.