Two years after obtaining initial approval, American Express is now cleared by regulators to launch its card business in mainland China.
A network clearing license was granted, according to a statement from the People’s Bank of China, to American Express’ China joint venture Express (Hangzhou) Technology Services and the firm is required to start the services within six months.
Transactions covered by the joint venture include both offline and online channels where there will be cooperation with China’s leading mobile wallet services providers, American Express said in a statement.
«This approval represents an important step forward in our long-term growth strategy,» Stephen Squeri, AmEx CEO said in the statement.
World’s Largest Market
Despite rising U.S.-China tensions, Beijing remains committed to opening up its $45 trillion financial market this year. The card business is a very sizeable market in the country with 8.5 billion bank cards in circulation – debit cards account for over 90 percent – alongside 190 trillion.
American Express becomes the first foreign payment network to gain access to processing domestic yuan transactions outpacing rivals MasterCard and Visa. The foreign entrance represents a long journey to open up mainland China’s bank card clearing business since mid-2015 when the country first official marked the end of state-run China UnionPay’s domestic monopoly.
