Tencent and Visa Expand Payments Partnership in China After Regulatory Approvals

Tencent and Visa said they are broadening their partnership on cross-border payments and AI-powered commerce, a move that deepens their presence in China's payments market. The companies announced the agreement on Thursday.

The deal comes after a series of regulatory approvals for U.S. financial firms in China. Visa and Citi both received the go-ahead this month to expand their operations in the world's second-largest economy.

Under the memorandum of understanding, the two companies will look at ways to simplify payments for travelers entering and leaving China, and will grow their existing cross-border money transfer cooperation. They also plan to build payment solutions that let travelers pay participating merchants through Tencent's Weixin Pay and Visa's networks, subject to regulatory requirements.

The collaboration will also draw on Visa Direct, the company's money transfer service, to make it easier for overseas users to send funds into the Weixin Pay ecosystem. In addition, the partnership will cover agentic commerce, an emerging form of online shopping in which AI agents help consumers find, choose and buy products or services.

Dowson Tong, Tencent's senior executive vice president and CEO of its Cloud and Smart Industries Group, said the arrangement would pair Tencent's AI capabilities with Visa's global network to improve cross-border payments. "We hope to create more seamless commerce experiences for consumers and new opportunities for businesses, both in China and internationally," he said.

The announcement follows an earlier approval this month from the People's Bank of China, which allowed Visa to begin preparations for a domestic bank card clearing business. That step brings the company closer to entering China's domestic payments market after more than four decades in the country.

Visa and Tencent have worked together since at least 2019, when the U.S. payments company announced plans to let international Visa cardholders pay through WeChat Pay in China. Tencent has also built ties with other global payments firms. In December last year, Mastercard and Tencent's international payments platform Midas announced a collaboration to integrate Mastercard's Click to Pay and payment security technologies into Midas' overseas payment solutions, aiming to make online transactions faster and more secure.

Last week, Citi said it had received approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission to set up a wholly owned securities company in China. The Shanghai-based venture, Citigroup Securities (China), will provide equities brokerage, securities underwriting, research and principal trading services to domestic and international clients. Citi said it would complete the remaining regulatory procedures before starting operations.

The approvals come as Beijing continues to open parts of its financial sector to foreign companies. CNBC previously reported that U.S. officials pressed Beijing on market access for Mastercard, Visa and Citigroup during bilateral meetings in Bangkok, citing a U.S. Treasury official. That official said the regulatory approvals were also part of an agreement reached by U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping when they met in Washington last month.