Visa approved to prepare domestic payments business in China

VISA received approval to begin preparations to establish a domestic bank card clearing business in China, as the firm follows rivals Mastercard and American Express in serving the country’s massive payments market.

“We greatly appreciate the important role of the leaders of the United States and China in pursuing a constructive and strategically stable relationship between the world’s largest economies,” Visa chief executive officer Ryan McInerney said in the statement. 

The company’s Beijing unit won the greenlight from the People’s Bank of China, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Tuesday. It must complete preparatory work within one year before applying to commence operations and obtaining the clearing business license, Xinhua added.

Visa’s clearance of the regulatory hurdle will allow it to operate in China’s US$144 trillion payments market and marks the end to its yearslong pursuit. 

Visa applied for the license in 2017, local media reported. Competitor Mastercard received approval to establish its bank card clearing business in 2020, and Amex’s joint venture in the country was approved to start bank card clearing services several months after that. 

For years, the battle for entry into mainland China’s massive domestic clearing market was a primary friction point in the broader trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies.

Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump said he brought up Visa’s request for access to mainland China’s market during a meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing. Visa’s CEO McInerney accompanied Trump on that May trip to China.

Xi later met his counterpart in Washington in late September, with both agreeing on a trade truce extension. The two are scheduled to talk again in person on the sidelines of the Apec Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Shenzhen in November. 

China first signalled an opening in the sector in June 2015, announcing that foreign bank-card clearing providers could apply for licenses by establishing local units or through acquisitions. The move was designed to dismantle the long-standing monopoly held by state-run China UnionPay.

SEE ALSO

Payment firms to co-develop framework to recognise AI agents that purchase on users’ behalf

While the approval marks a significant milestone, Visa is entering a market that looks very different from the one it first sought to enter. China’s payments ecosystem is now dominated by domestic mobile platforms Alipay and WeChat Pay, which have largely bypassed traditional card networks and become the primary channels for everyday transactions.

China had 10.2 billion bank cards in circulation at the end of 2025, with transaction value totaling 963.6 trillion yuan (US$144 trillion) last year, according to the People’s Bank of China. BLOOMBERG