American Express (Amex) has told
Bloomberg a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China’s
bankcard association UnionPay may lead to Amex processing more
transactions on its global network.
According to an Amex statement, the MoU will
bring the issuer together with UnionPay “to explore the expansion
of their current co-operative activities.”
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The current partnership allows Amex cards to
run on China UnionPay’s network, but both companies will now look
to work together to develop “new areas of co-operation within China
and in markets outside of China.”
“What they’re looking for is people to acquire
merchants for their cards outside of China and they don’t have an
acquisition network outside of China,” said James Tobin, a
spokesman for Amex in an interview with Bloomberg.
UnionPay has rarely been out of the headlines
over the past few months with claims of an unfair monopoly and
calls from foreign players for restrictions to be lifted to gain
access to the Chinese market ringing loudly in its ears.
The US filed a complaint with the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) in September this year against unfair barriers
to entry in its payments industry. Visa has effectively been shut
out of China’s market after a dispute broke out between the
international network and UnionPay over the processing of its
dual-currency credit cards.
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By GlobalDataChina’s payment market is certainly one to
watch. MasterCard Advisors, a MasterCard research subsidiary,
predicts China will overtake the US as the largest market for
credit cards with 900m cards in circulation by 2020. That figure is
expected to rise to 1.1bn and spending rates to reach $2.5trn by
2025.
