U.S. Treasury officials pressed Chinese counterparts on opening the door wider for U.S. financial firms, with Mastercard and Citigroup explicitly on the list, according to a Treasury official. Brooke's team met at least twice with the finance ministry and the People's Bank of China on the sidelines of G20 finance and IMF-World Bank gatherings in Bangkok.
The agenda included access to China's market for U.S. firms such as Mastercard, Visa and Citigroup, and it revisited approvals tied to the understanding Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping reached during Xi's state visit to Washington last month. This week's talks focused on how to carry out those commitments.
The push comes after China's Oct. 13 decision allowing Visa to start building a wholly owned onshore card-clearing business. The PBOC said Visa has as long as one year to prepare before seeking an operating license. Since 2018, Beijing has significantly liberalized its financial industry by steadily removing foreign ownership limits across areas ranging from securities to futures to fund management, even as it maintains controls on cross-border capital and preserves the dominance of state-backed firms in payments.
Mastercard currently handles yuan card payments via a joint venture with NetsUnion Clearing Corp that began operating in 2024. A pending approval would let it operate independently in China, according to one person.
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Citigroup has brought on several dozen staff for its China operation and is pursuing a fully owned securities license to operate onshore in areas that include research, underwriting, principal trading, and A-share brokerage, according to two people familiar with the industry. One of them said the bank plans to raise its China securities headcount to about 100. Citi filed its application in late 2021, and a Reuters report last month indicated that approval may be near.
"The move suggests the US-China trade environment remains benign, and Beijing is keen to keep up the momentum," said Dan Wang, Eurasia Group's China director. She added that granting licenses to U.S. financial firms is a "limited concession" on market access, but one that signals continued opening and "should marginally bolster investor confidence in Chinese assets." The PBOC, the National Financial Regulatory Administration, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, Chinese embassies in Singapore and Thailand, the U.S. Treasury press office and Visa did not respond to requests for comment. Declining to comment were Citigroup and Mastercard. Trump and Xi are slated to hold their third meeting of the year in Shenzhen in November during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
This is incremental, not a floodgate. Still, movement on licenses for Visa, Mastercard and Citi points to selective openings in China's financial system alongside ongoing capital controls. If approvals arrive, U.S. firms would gain more onshore latitude, which could reshape competition in China's payments and securities markets and nudge sentiment toward Chinese financial assets.
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