China’s central bank on Tuesday said it had approved an application from Mastercard’s joint venture to establish a bank card clearing business in China, a major step in the US company’s decades-long march to enter the yuan payment and clearing market.
The American firm’s joint venture, which was established in March 2019 with the central bank affiliated Netsunion Clearing Corporation, will start preparing a new institution to begin bankcard clearing services , the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said in a statement.
Netsunion was established in 2017 and all third-party payment services involving bank accounts must go through its platforms, cutting direct clearing between banks and service providers such as Alipay and Wechat Pay, and giving Beijing access to data on all mobile transactions.
Mastercard said in a statement that the company will “be able to apply to the People’s Bank of China for formal approval to begin domestic bank card clearing activity” within a year.