The People's Bank of China has given Visa preliminary approval for yuan card clearing, allowing Visa Information Technology (Beijing) to begin preparing a bank card clearing institution, the central bank said on October 13. Visa has one year to complete preparations before it applies to start operations, which would let it support yuan-denominated Visa cards and domestic clearing.
Why it matters: Visa's role in China has largely been tied to cross-border spending, so a domestic licence would put it into yuan card payments alongside UnionPay. This approval covers only the preparation stage, and Visa still needs final approval before it can begin clearing.
Source: Caixin Global, October 13, 2026
Related: TWTWIP week ending 16 October 2026
Image: Max12Max, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
