China is one of the world’s largest payments markets, but U.S. payments giant Visa has largely been on the sidelines for nearly four decades.
That could change after Visa received approval from China’s central bank to operate as a domestic bank card clearing institution in the country. The company is also expanding its relationship with Tencent, which operates the WeChat Pay mobile payments platform and is a major player in China’s technology and payments infrastructure.
A key priority for the two companies is to simplify cross-border payments for travelers to and from China. Their plans include developing solutions that would let travelers pay participating merchants via WeChat Pay using Visa’s payment network.
The Impact of Travel
Travel and tourism have helped drive improvements in cross-border payments. In China, the widespread adoption of domestic mobile wallets like WeChat Pay and Alipay has created challenges for some international visitors. Although these platforms offer significant advantages for local consumers, travelers have not always been able to use them easily at checkout.
China has responded with initiatives to connect its payments infrastructure with overseas platforms. For example, the country recently connected its major payment ecosystems with Indonesia’s Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS), allowing travelers from both countries to pay using their own apps and currencies.
Expanding Into Remittances and AI
Beyond travel-related payments, Visa and Tencent plan to target the remittance market. Consumers living abroad often need reliable ways to send money home, but traditional remittances can be costly and time-consuming, especially when transactions involve multiple intermediaries.
The companies aim to address these challenges by connecting Visa Direct, Visa’s global money transfer service, with the WeChat Pay ecosystem. The move mirrors a similar integration between Mastercard Move and Tencent last year, which was also intended to facilitate remittances to China.
The partnership will also explore agentic commerce, where AI agents identify and purchase products or services on consumers’ behalf. Both Visa and Tencent have been exploring the potential of agentic commerce, adding another dimension to a partnership that spans international travel, money transfers and AI-driven transactions.
