China’s central bank has granted preliminary approval to Visa, the American credit and debit card payment network, to establish a domestic card-processing business after years of delays.
The decision came months after President Donald Trump personally pressed Chinese leader Xi Jinping over the company’s restricted market access.
Visa announced on Oct. 13 that the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) had approved its application to begin preparations for a domestic bank-card clearing operation.
The company must still obtain a separate operating license before processing domestic transactions.
The decision follows nearly a decade of efforts by Visa to enter a market dominated by state-backed China UnionPay, which benefited from restrictions Washington repeatedly challenged….