Card Briefs: Visa, MasterCard Sign Shanghai Deals

Visa and MasterCard have each announced automated teller machine agreements with Shanghai Golden Card, part of the emerging Chinese payment card network.

With Shanghai branches of several Chinese member banks, Visa announced June 25 that 1,026 ATMs would be available by yearend to foreign visitors for cash withdrawals in local currency.

Visa said 100 ATMs in China have been connected to its global network since May, and the association is installing "SuperSite" ATMs at the Shanghai airport and other locations.

The agreement is symbolic of Shanghai's "increasing internationalization, rapid growth, and vast potential," said Rayment Chan, Visa International executive vice president and general manager for north Asia.

MasterCard signed an agreement July 9 to connect Shanghai Golden Card to the global Cirrus ATM network.

The signing came a day after MasterCard formally opened a representative office in Shanghai, joining ones that opened in Hong Kong in 1986 and Beijing in 1988. The office "indicates MasterCard's commitment to the China market" and shows that it "attaches great importance to the development" of the country's financial capital, said People's Bank of China deputy governor and MasterCard director Zhou Xiaochuan.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER