American Express Photo: VCG

American Express said it is bullish on the Chinese financial market, noting that the country's opening-up has been a trigger for the company to consider more investment in China.

"We are the beneficiaries of China's financial opening-up, and Chinese government's continuously efforts on financial market have given us much confidence in Chinese market," Zhu Yamin, CEO of Express (Hangzhou) Technology Service Co, told the Global Times in an interview.

In June of 2020, American Express announced that its joint venture in Chinese mainland has received approval from the People's Bank of China (PBC) for a bank card clearing license.

With this, American Express becomes the first foreign payments network to be licensed to clear RMB transactions in the Chinese mainland. In December last year, the JV has increased its registered capital from 5.06 billion yuan ($770 million) to 5.76 billion yuan, the third time for the JV increasing its registration capital since it was established.

"The increased registered capital shows our commitment in Chinese market, for one side, it can tell that we are optimistic about the Chinese market, and it also shows that the opening-up of Chinese government's attract us to continue to invest," Zhu said. 

Previously, in January 2021 and November 2022, the JV increased its registration capital on two occasions, with the registered capital ranging from 1 billion yuan to 3.7 billion yuan and then to 5.06 billion yuan.

To date, the JV has partnered with more than 20 Chinese mainstream banks to launch more than 150 new American Express-branded RMB credit cards and debit cards, and has cooperated with more than 30 local banks, non-bank payment institutions and mobile payment leaders. Their cooperation with the platform has completed the network access of millions of merchant acceptance terminals.

Chinese regulators are now taking measures to enhance the financial opening-up, which has bolstered the confidence of foreign financial institutions in expanding their operations in China.

Recently, the China Securities Regulatory Commission approved BNP Paribas and HSBC to expand their financial business scope in China, providing a vivid testimony of further opening-up of China's financial industry.

In June this year, Chinese financial regulators announced significant policy measures and reforms for China's capital market and highlighted China's efforts in promoting high-quality opening-up in the financial sector at the 2024 Lujiazui Forum held in Shanghai.

The measures include China will simplify and improve fund management for the dollar-denominated Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor scheme and the yuan-denominated sibling, RQFII, according to Zhu Hexin, deputy governor of the PBC.

Li Yunze, head of the National Financial Regulatory Administration said at the same forum that opening-up is an important driving force for the reform and development of China's financial industry. Li said that China sincerely welcomes more foreign institutions and long-term capital to enter China.

"The dividends of China's financial opening-up are further emerging, which have given us more confident in Chinese financial market," Zhu Yamin said. There is no doubt that the Chinese market is attractive to foreign enterprises around the world, she added.

As of the end of 2023, foreign banks in China had established 41 legal entity banks and 132 representative offices. 

The number of operational institutions had reached 888, with total assets amounting to 3.86 trillion yuan, according to data from the National Financial Regulatory Administration, demonstrating the growing interest of foreign financial institutions in investing in China.

Zhu Yamin also highlighted that the efforts made by China, such as the unilateral visa-free policy for citizens from many countries to visit China adopted in recent months, will help boost their businesses in China.