China has blocked MasterCard from processing credit card transactions in renminbi, raising concerns about Beijing’s willingness to open up the sector fully after the World Trade Organisation found it unfairly restricted foreign card groups.
According to a document obtained by the Financial Times, the Chinese central bank ordered last month that EPayLinks, an online payment platform, stop issuing renminbi-settled credit cards in partnership with MasterCard.
The ruling by the People’s Bank of China comes less than a year after the WTO declared that Beijing discriminated against foreign electronic payment providers by allowing UnionPay – the Chinese rival to MasterCard and Visa – to monopolise domestic renminbi-denominated transactions.