"Underground money house" is a common name for organizations or individuals who engage in financial business illegally outside financial institutions. It mainly refers to illegal financial services such as fund-raising, high-interest lending, bill discount and financing guarantee. Under the guise of open or semi-open consignment, pawnshop and guarantee company. Its main source of profit is high handling fee and interest. It has jeopardized the national economic security and social stability: First, it has caused huge tax losses, costing China nearly 100 billion yuan every year. The second is to add fuel to the flames of criminal activities, and corrupt elements use it to launder money, so that the proceeds of corruption and bribery are clothed with legitimate income; Providing financial support for crimes such as drugs, smuggling, tax evasion, underworld, and false capital contribution, and transferring funds through them; More seriously, it may also be used by international terrorist forces to transfer and provide funds for terrorist activities. Third, it seriously disrupts the financial order and endangers financial security.

Generally speaking, the criminal law has relatively comprehensive provisions on such illegal financial activities. The Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council and the Ministry of Public Security suggest that the behavior of "underground money houses" evading financial supervision and illegally handling large-sum fund transfer and other fund payment and settlement services for others should be listed separately in the provisions of the Criminal Law on the crime of illegal business operation to meet the needs of cracking down on such crimes.

Amendment (7) of the Criminal Law stipulates that Item 3 of Article 225 of the Criminal Law is amended as: "Those who illegally engage in securities, futures and insurance business or illegally engage in fund payment and settlement business without the approval of the relevant competent departments of the state;" The provision of "or illegally engaging in fund payment and settlement business" has been added to the original item 3 of this article. The so-called "fund payment and settlement business" originally refers to the behavior of receiving and paying through the transfer of funds in the bank account, that is, the bank accepts the entrustment of customers to receive and pay on its behalf, and draws money from the payer's deposit account and transfers it to the payee's deposit account to complete the settlement of creditor's rights and debts or fund transfer between economies. The types of bank settlement include: bank draft, commercial draft, cashier's check, check, remittance, entrusted collection, collection and acceptance. The "underground money houses" engaged in these fund payment and settlement businesses that can only be carried out by commercial banks are illegal and secret, so they are included in the scope of "illegal business operation crime" and punished. Considering that Article 225 of the General Provisions of the Criminal Law has already stipulated that "in violation of state regulations, one of the following illegal business operations has disrupted the market order and the circumstances are serious", the amendment did not set any amount requirements when adding such acts.