China central bank approves Tencent's Tenpay capital boost to $2.1 billion

BEIJING (Reuters) -China's central bank has approved Tencent Holdings' online payment platform Tenpay boosting its registered capital to 15.3 billion yuan ($2.13 billion), according to a central bank statement on Friday.

The approval will make Tenpay the non-bank payment institution with the highest registered capital in China, Chinese state-backed media outlet The Paper said.

Founded in 2006, the Chinese payment company's current registered capital stands at 1 billion yuan.

Tenpay offers payment licenses and technical support for Tencent's WeChat Pay and QQ Wallet, The Paper said.

The Chinese authorities previously fined the Shenzhen-based firm nearly 3 billion yuan over issues such as customer data management during a crackdown on the country's financial technology industry that ended last year.

($1 = 7.1950 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Ella Cao, Ethan Wang and Brenda Goh; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Bill Berkrot)