American Express okayed to begin China bank card clearing venture

American Express Co cleared a key hurdle in its bid to access China’s US$27 trillion payments market after the central bank accepted its application to start a bank card clearing business, Bloomberg reports.

The People Bank of China made the announcement on its official Wechat account yesterday, without giving more details. The decision to accept the application signals that it’s moving closer to final approval.

AmEx in November 2018 became the first foreign company to win permission to start preparation for the business after forming a joint venture with LianLian, a Chinese fintech-services firm.

The latest move shows progress in U.S. payment networks’ battle for access to mainland China, which has been a point of contention raised in the Trump administration’s trade dispute with China.

China in June 2015 allowed foreign bank-card clearing providers to obtain licenses by setting up units or acquiring a local company, ending a monopoly by state-run China UnionPay Co. But progress in entering China has been slow for Visa Inc and Mastercard, the world’s two biggest payment networks, with neither firm as of yet obtaining approval.