BANGKOK – U.S. officials pressed Beijing on market access issues for Mastercard Inc and Citigroup Inc during at least two bilateral meetings with Chinese counterparts in Bangkok this week, according to a U.S. Treasury official.
The Treasury delegation, led by Deputy Secretary Francis Brooke, held bilateral meetings with officials from the People’s Bank of China and the finance ministry on the sidelines of the Group of 20 finance meetings and the IMF-World Bank annual gathering this week, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door meetings.
The talks included market access for U.S. companies, including Mastercard, Visa and Citigroup, the official said, adding that regulatory approval was part of the agreement reached during the meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping during the latter’s state visit in Washington last month.
The sideline meetings in Bangkok continued discussions on implementing these deals, the official said.
The PBOC, China’s National Financial Regulatory Administration, China Securities Regulatory Commission, Chinese embassies in Singapore and Thailand, the U.S. Treasury Department press office and Visa did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment. Citigroup and Mastercard declined to comment.
The progress follows China’s Oct. 13 approval for Visa Inc. to begin preparing a wholly owned domestic card-clearing business. Visa has up to a year to prepare before it applies for an operating license, the PBOC has said.
China has opened much of its financial sector to foreign firms since 2018, gradually lifting foreign ownership caps on services such as securities, futures and fund management. It still limits cross-border capital flows and has kept state-backed domestic players dominant in payments.
Mastercard currently operates yuan card payments in China through a local joint venture with NetsUnion Clearing Corp., which began operating in 2024. The pending approval would allow it to operate as an independent entity, the person said.
Citigroup — which has hired several dozen employees for its China unit — is seeking a wholly owned securities license to conduct A-share brokerage, underwriting, research and principal trading businesses in the onshore market, two people familiar with the industry said, requesting anonymity for discussing private matters.
One of the two people close to Citigroup said the bank planned to increase its China securities staff to about 100.
The bank applied in late 2021, and Reuters reported last month that approval could come soon.
Trump and Xi are expected to meet in person for the third time this year in Shenzhen, China, for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November.
“The move suggests the US-China trade environment remains benign, and Beijing is keen to keep up the momentum,” said Dan Wang, China director at Eurasia Group.
Licensing U.S. financial firms is a “limited concession” on market access, she said, though it signals China is continuing to open up, and “this should marginally bolster investor confidence in Chinese assets.”
