China's central bank has ordered the suspension of online credit cards and QR code-scanning payments over security concerns.

The suspension order from the People's Bank of China came as an early bump for Tencent and Alibaba which, just three days ago, were shortlisted as participants in the government's pilot scheme to open up the banking industry to private companies.

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But Zhou Jinhuang, vice director of the PBoC's payment and settlement department, said it is just temporary and not a permanent prohibition.

Zhou pointed out that payments made using virtual credit cards and QR code scanning can compromise consumers' personal information and capital safety, and must be carefully studied before the system is allowed.

Tencent announced early this week that it will be offering virtual credit cards within WeChat with the backing of CITIC Bank.

Alibaba had announced on the same day that it will hand out one million virtual credit cards, also in cooperation with CITIC Bank.

Virtual credit cards, like physical cards, have a 16-number mark, expiration date, and CVV2 number.

Tencent can grant customers credit limits ranging from RMB 50 to 5,000 depending on their past shopping history on Tenpay. The Tencent virtual credit cards can also be used at physical retail stores that support purchases using WeChat QR codes.

Alibaba's virtual credit cards, on the other hand, can be used in all online shopping transactions and can have credit limits from RMB 200 to unlimited. 

Before the central bank's suspension order came, Alibaba was all set to roll out its virtual credit cards next week, while Tencent had not set a date.