Visa Leads as First International Card Org Supporting Chinese Cardholders on Apple Pay

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Visa has announced that Chinese cardholders can now link their locally issued cards to Apple Pay, offering a smoother cross-border payment experience. This makes Visa the first international payment card provider to support this feature in China.

By enabling the binding of Visa cards to Apple Pay, users in China can make contactless purchases at overseas locations that accept NFC payments without needing to open any apps during the transaction. Additionally, they can pay directly with Apple Pay on foreign apps and websites without creating separate accounts, the company stated.

Apple introduced its mobile payment platform in 2014, utilizing NFC technology. It entered the Chinese market in 2016 but only supported cards issued by China UnionPay, the country’s main bank card network.

Given the growing global demand for mobile payments, Visa is dedicated to offering Chinese consumers a range of secure and convenient payment options, ensuring they can enjoy seamless transactions wherever they are, explained Yin Xiaolong, General Manager at Visa China.

To protect the security of card linking with Apple Pay, Visa increased investments in data and payment security measures, including launching tokenization services and applying them to cross-border transactions.

Tokenization is essential for securing mobile payments; it replaces a credit card number with a unique, temporary token during transactions, safeguarding sensitive information such as credit card details and personal data.

Initially, Visa will support eight Chinese banks for credit card binding with Apple Pay: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of Communications, China Merchants Bank, China CITIC Bank, Ping An Bank, and Industrial Bank.

Visa and Apple plan to collaborate with more issuing banks, including Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, China Construction Bank, China Minsheng Bank, and China Everbright Bank. The rollout of these features will happen gradually over time, the organization noted.