Improved payments for foreign personnel in China

Recently, the People's Bank of China announced that it has made phased progress in addressing the inconvenience faced by foreign personnel in making payments in China through comprehensive measures.

Zhang Qingsong, vice pesident of the People's Bank of China, pointed out three main challenges faced by foreign nationals in making payments in China.

Firstly, the fees are high using overseas bank cards compared to domestic bank card payments. Secondly, number of merchants accepting overseas bank cards are limited. And thirdly, the merchants are sometimes at shortage of change.

To address these issues, the People's Bank of China is accelerating the promotion of merchants accepting overseas bank cards while optimizing the services for foreign nationals to open bank accounts, facilitating the easier linking of overseas bank cards with payment platforms such as Alipay or WeChat.

According to statistics, nearly 4 million inbound travelers used mobile payments in 2023, with over 70 million transactions. Currently, key merchants in Shanghai, Zhejiang, and other areas have a coverage rate of over 90% for accepting foreign cards. In the next step, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange will further optimize foreign currency exchange services.

Source: CCTV News; trans-editing by Wang Yunya