Mastercard's Chinese joint venture announced the official commencement of its bank card clearing operations on Thursday, issuing Mastercard-branded cards with its member institutions for domestic and international use.
Mastercard NetsUnion Information Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., a joint venture of Mastercard and NetsUnion Clearing Corporation, received formal approval from the People's Bank of China, the central bank, in November last year for bank card clearing business in the country.
"We have always been very committed to this market. This license will give us a very different way to be more deeply involved in China. We think Mastercard is going to be really good for this country in terms of driving domestic consumption," said Ling Hai, president for Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa (APEMEA) of Mastercard.
Mastercard is the second overseas bank card clearing institution to enter the Chinese market, following American Express, which received approval in 2020.
Experts said the Mastercard NetsUnion's commencement of operation tells that China is opening its bank card clearing market further, which help optimize the bank card industry and enhance the competitiveness and service level of China's bank cards.
"In the future, consumers and merchants will have more choices and will be able to enjoy more differentiated and refined services," said Dong Ximiao, principal investigator of Merchants Union Consumer Finance Company Limited.
Mastercard's JV starts bank card clearing business in China
云南昆明斗南被誉为“亚洲花都”，这里的鲜花产销两旺，每天都有上千个品种、数千万枝鲜花，通过竞拍、批发、零售等方式，走向全国各地的市场。 Asia's largest flower auction market, the Kunming International Flora Auction Trading Center in southwest China's Yunnan Province, is cashing in on fast-growing consumer demand of various fresh-cut flowers. 【正文】 走进昆明国际花卉拍卖交易中心，数百名鲜花购买商正在激烈角逐，进行竞拍，在这里，平均不到4秒就会完成一次交易，靠的就是准头、拼的就是手速，但凡犹豫一点，就拍不到心仪的鲜切花。 At the auction center in Dounan, "the flower capital of Asia," a flower auctioning scene is busy with high tension and excitement. Buyers from all over the country are engaging in spirited bidding wars for their preferred flowers. In mere seconds, they can quickly decide whether they should bid for products based on information on the varieties, grades and prices displayed on a trading screen. And each bid has to be made in less than four seconds, said a flower buyer. 【同期】鲜花购买商 记者：今天你要拍多少枝花？“How many flowers you wish to bid on today?" 大约的话要拍一万多枝。“About 10,000 stems of flowers would be needed (today). 记者：都是什么花？What kind of flowers are they? 我主要是做多头玫瑰。I mainly sell multi-headed roses,” "About 10,000 stems of flowers would be needed (today). I mainly sell multi-headed roses," he told a reporter.
自5月6日以来，昆明国际花卉拍卖交易中心，一直处于备货、供货的高峰期，这里的拍卖交易也从平时的每天下午一场，变成早、晚各一场。 To cope with the overwhelming demand amid peak season, a notable adjustment was made to the daily auction transactions at that venue from May 6, with transferring a single auction session in the afternoon to two sessions in morning and evening seperately. 【同期】鲜花购买商 （第）一场的话因为太早，然后客户的那个订单量下得少，所以说我们就说先拍一部分放在那里，等（第）二场然后客户下单了，然后我们再缺什么补什么。 "As the first auction starts too early and customer orders are relatively small, we generally bid some of the products and store them. We will wait until customers place more orders during the second auction, and then we will replenish inventory based on their demand," the flower buyer added. 【正文】 据昆明国际花卉拍卖交易中心最新数据显示，五月以来，昆明花拍中心日均供货量超过850万枝，整体较去年上涨约31%。 The latest data from the center reported that more than 8.5 million stems of flowers have been transacted on a daily basis since May, surging around 31 percent from the last year.
Asia's leading flower auction market blossoms over growing demand
