Dive Brief:

• Visa, the largest U.S. card network, and no. 2 Mastercard last week enabled touch-and-go card payments for international travelers using the extensive rail transit in China’s capital Beijing, according to a press release from the country’s government on Saturday. 
• As of Friday, international travelers to the country who were Visa or Mastercard cardholders were able to use a touch-and-go feature on the cards to pay their fares for 27 rail lines running through the city using 490 train stations, the release said.
• Mastercard, which won approval last year to provide payments services to domestic cardholders in the country, said separately Friday that it will also “soon” offer those local cardholders the use of a China Mastercard card to pay their Beijing urban rail transit fares. A Mastercard spokesperson didn’t immediately have a comment on timing.

Dive Insight:

Last November, Purchase, New York-based Mastercard entered a joint venture called Mastercard NUCC Information Technology after receiving approval from Chinese government authorities to begin offering bankcard clearing in that country.

That joint venture with NetsUnion Clearing, which is China’s national online transactions processor, had to first receive approval from the People’s Bank of China and the National Administration of Financial Regulation.

While the Chinese government gave New York-based American Express approval to operate domestic services in the country before Mastercard, back in 2020, San Francisco-based Visa has yet to gain the same permission despite efforts to do so.

The Chinese market presents a trillion-dollar opportunity for U.S. card companies, but China’s domestic card network provider, UnionPay, is by far the largest operator there. China is the second most populous country in the world behind India.

Mastercard’s joint venture began operations in the country in May and the company’s CEO, Michael Miebach, has been vocal about ambitions for expansion in the country. Mastercard seeks to have its cards accepted at millions of locations in China within three years, the company said in the Friday release. To that end, Mastercard has partnered with the Chinese payments app company Alipay and the Chinese social media outlet WeChat.

Mastercard “has been continuously accelerating the expansion of its acceptance network, identifying key commercial areas and usage scenarios, such as hotels, public transportation and tourist attractions in hub cities and popular destinations,” the company said Friday.

Travelers can already use the country’s domestic credit card UnionPay to make rail fare payments and also use QR codes displayed on their phones for such payments, the Chinese government release noted.

A Visa spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.