Ryan McInerney Finally Gets Visa a Path Into China’s Domestic Card Market
Observer ·
Visa has preliminary approval to build a domestic clearing business in China. CEO Ryan McInerney enters the push after a record fiscal year and into a market transformed by UnionPay, Alipay and WeChat Pay.
Ryan McInerney finally has a path into China’s domestic card market.
On Oct. 13, the People’s Bank of China approved Visa’s application to begin preparing a domestic bank-card clearing institution through Visa Information Technology (Beijing), its Chinese subsidiary.
It is not yet a license to process domestic payments. Visa has up to a year to build the required infrastructure before applying to begin operations, at which point Chinese regulators will decide whether to grant a clearing license.
For McInerney, the long-awaited approval landed alongside another strong quarter.
Visa reported fiscal fourth-quarter net revenue of $12.1 billion on Oct. 27, up 13 percent from a year earlier. Adjusted earnings rose 17 percent to $3.48 per share, ahead of analysts’ expectations of $3.44. Payments volume increased 9 percent, processed transactions rose 10 percent and cross-border volume excluding transactions within Europe climbed 14 percent.
For the full fiscal year, Visa generated $45.9 billion in net revenue, up 15 percent.
The China application predates McInerney’s tenure as CEO. Visa first applied in 2017, withdrew its application in January 2018 and refiled that April . The approval gives him the job of turning years of regulatory waiting into an actual business.
“The approval of our Application to Prepare marks a significant step forward in Visa’s long-standing commitment to China,” McInerney said when the decision was announced .
Visa will not enter the same market it applied to join nine years ago.
State-controlled China UnionPay remains firmly established in domestic card clearing, while Alipay and WeChat Pay have made mobile payments central to everyday commerce.
Visa is also arriving behind two American rivals. American Express became the first foreign payments network licensed to clear domestic transactions in mainland China in 2020. Mastercard ’s joint venture received final approval to begin domestic bank-card clearing in 2023.
China’s sheer scale still makes the opportunity difficult to ignore. Bank cards there processed 4.6 trillion transactions worth 963.6 trillion yuan in 2025 .
If Visa ultimately receives a license, Chinese banks could issue yuan-denominated Visa cards and Visa could clear those transactions domestically rather than remaining largely confined to cross-border activity.
That international reach may be where McInerney has the clearest opening.
Visa does not need to replace Alipay, WeChat Pay or UnionPay to make China worthwhile. Its global network remains useful to Chinese consumers and companies doing business abroad and to foreign companies doing business inside China.
The regulatory process is not finished.
After completing its preparations, Visa must apply to open the business. The People’s Bank of China and the National Financial Regulatory Administration will then decide whether to issue a clearing license.
Reuters has reported that Visa has sought a fully foreign-owned structure. If approved that way, Visa would have more operational control than American Express and Mastercard have through their Chinese joint ventures. It would also have to build merchant acceptance, bank relationships and regulatory trust without a Chinese shareholder helping it along.
Visa enters the effort with plenty of financial strength, although its latest quarter also gave investors something to watch. Client incentives rose 21 percent to $5.1 billion, partly because of new agreements with major customers, and Visa shares slipped about 1.4 percent in extended trading after the results.
McInerney has permission to prepare.
Now Visa has to build a business in a payments market that spent nine years learning to live without it.