Regulator denies onerous rules on foreign payment card firms

Fan Yifei, a vice governor at China’s central bank, said there were no plans to limit licenses issued to foreign bank card providers or force them to operate through joint ventures with local partners, long-held fears of firms like Visa and MasterCard as they seek to enter the country’s US$7 trillion card payment market, Reuters reported. “We will actively and cautiously open up China’s card payment market according to laws and regulations, and encourage fair competition,” Fan said. China UnionPay, a state-controlled consortium, has a monopoly on all yuan payment cards issued and used in the country.