China approves Mastercard joint venture to launch bank card clearing business

China's central bank on Sunday announced that it and the National Financial Regulatory Administration have approved an application by Mastercard's Chinese joint venture to conduct bank card clearing operations in the country.

Mastercard NUCC Information Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd, a joint venture of Mastercard and NetsUnion Clearing Corporation (NUCC), could authorize its member institutions to issue "MasterCard" branded Yuan bank cards in China, said the People's Bank of China (PBOC).

Mastercard is the second overseas bank card clearing institution to enter the Chinese market. In 2020, China's central bank approved an application by American Express' Chinese joint venture to conduct such business in the country.

The decision demonstrates China's determination to open wider to the outside world, insiders said.

The PBOC said it would promote work on the bank card clearing market access in an orderly manner, while improving the regulatory system to balance development and security.

Experts noted that the move is conducive to building a stable bank card clearing market structure with effective competition and deepening the supply-side structural reform of the payment industry. 

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