American Express Clears Regulatory Hurdle To Enter China

April 27, 2018

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that China’s central bank has informed American Express that it would formally accept its application to clear and settle domestic bank-card transactions. Currently state owned UnionPay dominates the market with a 90%+ marketshare. American Express has a joint venture with China based mobile payments provider Lianlian, back in 2012 American Express licensed their serve technology to Lianlian.

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12 Comments

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St (@guest_587440)

April 27, 2018 17:06

#587440

Accept application ≠ approve application, from what I understand.

C.T. (@guest_587497)

April 27, 2018 20:29

#587497

You’r right!

Sue (@guest_587439)

April 27, 2018 16:57

#587439

Also China is probably just going to try and take whatever technology/IP Amex has from the partnership. Don’t see it as something that’ll make Amex any money, probably just loss of their specialized technologies.

James (@guest_587699)

April 29, 2018 01:23

#587699

Sue

Not sure Amex has any IP worth taking when WeChat/Alipay have already innovated far past any US company in the mobile payment space.

J (@guest_587406)

April 27, 2018 15:40

#587406

Amex will be at a huge disadvantage in China, not because I have doubt about credit cards rewards, but because all the other major players like wechatPay/Alipay/unionPay charge virtually none interchange fees to local merchants. So I’m not sure if Amex’s current business model would work in China.

Sam (@guest_587405)

April 27, 2018 15:32

#587405

LOL…I was just in China, everyone uses Alipay and Wechat pay. This is just gonna be a waste of money for Amex. Maybe they can try to instill reward cards in China.