Tencent and Visa Expand Cross-Border Payments Partnership After China Regulatory Approvals

Tencent and Visa have signed a memorandum of understanding to broaden their cooperation across cross-border payments, AI-powered commerce, and international money transfers, the companies said Thursday, building on a partnership that dates to at least 2019.

The agreement follows a series of regulatory milestones for U.S. financial firms in China. The People's Bank of China granted Visa approval this month to begin preparations for a domestic bank card clearing business — a long-sought foothold in China's domestic payments market that the company has pursued for more than four decades.

Under the new arrangement, Tencent and Visa will work to simplify payments for travelers moving in and out of China, allowing them to pay participating merchants through Tencent's Weixin Pay and Visa networks, subject to regulatory requirements.

The companies also plan to deepen their work through Visa Direct, Visa's money transfer service, making it easier for international users to send funds into the Weixin Pay ecosystem.

The partnership will extend into agentic commerce — an emerging category of online shopping in which AI agents assist consumers in finding, selecting, and purchasing products or services on their behalf.

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

Citi also secured a separate regulatory approval this month, receiving clearance from the China Securities Regulatory Commission to establish a wholly owned securities company in China. The Shanghai-based entity, Citigroup Securities (China), will offer equities brokerage, securities underwriting, research, and principal trading to domestic and international clients. Citi said it would complete remaining regulatory procedures before beginning operations.

Tencent has simultaneously expanded its payments relationships with other global firms. In December of 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.

The current wave of approvals reflects a broader opening of China's financial sector to foreign operators, reinforcing the significance of high-level diplomatic engagement between Washington and Beijing. U.S. officials pressed Beijing on market access for Mastercard, Visa, and Citigroup during bilateral meetings in Bangkok, and regulatory approvals were also part of an agreement reached by U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting in Washington last month, according to a U.S. Treasury official.

The Tencent-Visa agreement and Citi's securities license together signal that the pace of foreign financial firms gaining meaningful operational scope in China is accelerating, even as broader geopolitical tensions between the two countries remain unresolved. How quickly these ventures move from regulatory preparation to active business will be closely watched by other Western firms seeking similar access.