Tencent, Visa deepen payments push in China after regulatory green light

Tencent and Visa are expanding their partnership in cross-border payments and AI-powered commerce, the companies said Thursday, deepening their push into China’s payments market.

The agreement follows fresh regulatory approvals for U.S. financial firms in China, with Visa and Citi receiving the green light this month to expand their operations in the world’s second-largest economy.

Under the memorandum of understanding, Tencent and Visa will explore ways to make payments easier for travelers entering and leaving China while expanding their cross-border money transfer partnership.

The companies also plan to develop payment solutions that would allow travelers to pay participating merchants through Tencent’s Weixin Pay and Visa networks, subject to regulatory requirements.

They also aim to expand their collaboration through Visa Direct, Visa’s money transfer service, making it easier for overseas users to send funds into the Weixin Pay ecosystem.

The partnership will also extend to agentic commerce, an emerging form of online shopping in which AI agents can help consumers find, select and purchase products or services.

Dowson Tong, Tencent's senior executive vice president and CEO of its Cloud and Smart Industries Group, said the partnership would combine Tencent's AI capabilities with Visa's global network to improve cross-border payments.

"We hope to create more seamless commerce experiences for consumers and new opportunities for businesses, both in China and internationally," he said.

The announcement follows Visa’s approval from the People’s Bank of China earlier this month to begin preparations for a domestic bank card clearing business, bringing it closer to entering China’s domestic payments market after more than four decades in the country.

Visa and Tencent have been cooperating since at least 2019, when the U.S. payments company announced plans to allow international Visa cardholders to make payments through WeChat Pay in China.

Tencent has also expanded its partnerships with other global payments firms.

In December last year, Mastercard and Tencent's international payments platform Midas announced a collaboration to integrate Mastercard's Click to Pay and payment security technologies into Midas' overseas payment solutions, with the aim of making online transactions faster and more secure.

Last week, Citi said it received approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission to establish a wholly owned securities company in China.

The Shanghai-based venture, Citigroup Securities (China), will offer services including equities brokerage, securities underwriting, research and principal trading to domestic and international clients.

Citi said it would complete the remaining regulatory procedures before beginning operations.

The approvals come as Beijing continues to open parts of its financial sector to foreign companies.

CNBC previously reported that U.S. officials pressed Beijing on market access for Mastercard, Visa and Citigroup during bilateral meetings in Bangkok, citing a U.S. Treasury official.

The official said regulatory approvals were also part of an agreement reached by U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting in Washington last month.