After more than ten years of lobbying by MasterCard, Visa and others, China issued new regulations on June 7 which will allow foreign payment networks access to China’s $8+ trillion payments market, previously dominated by a near-monopoly of China Union Pay, which is government-run.
Card issuers will still be required to operate locally, and China’s various cybersecurity and other standards will apply. (Yes, China does have cybersecurity rules.)
How this works in real life remains to be seen. China does not have a consistent history of encouraging foreign competition in practice, despite official policies which purport to do so.
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