TITLE:
Research on China’s Internet Finance: Definition, Composition, and Total Accounting from the Perspective of MFS
AUTHORS:
Yanling Xia, Shaoling Ding
KEYWORDS:
Internet Finance, The Monetary and Financial Statistics, Assets and Liabilities, Total Accounting
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.14 No.3,
April
1,
2026
ABSTRACT: While Internet finance has risen rapidly as an emerging financial sector in China, the current macro-financial statistics field lags significantly in its in-depth research on the accounting of Internet finance, posing numerous challenges to the effective implementation of regulatory and statistical efforts. Based on MFSMCG2016, the definition and connotation of China’s internet finance, formation elements have been refined, the fourth mode of internet financial accounting is determined as the scope, and the classification of three types of accounting entities in MFS system has been clarified. Based on the “Classification of National Economic Industries”, three types of accounting entities were further classified at the basic level, and then the specific business forms of each main form were analyzed. With the help of transaction diversion in SNA2008 and transaction virtualization, the virtual assets and liabilities and types of each main form were refined, and the object of internet financial accounting was clarified. The accounting objects and category attribution of internet finance from the perspective of MFS were further summarized, and the balance sheet of the internet financial sector was designed. Then, the virtual assets of China’s internet finance were calculated by looking for alternative indicators. Research shows that in 2022, the virtual assets of China’s Internet finance generally decreased, with a reduction of approximately 6003.53 billion yuan. Among them, the virtual assets of third-party payment platforms accounted for over 95%, highlighting their core position. This was a systematization of the micro-study of Internet finance, as well as helpful in solving the urgent needs of China’s Internet financial statistics practice. It holds significant implications for strengthening regulatory frameworks and promoting financial stability.