UK-based Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) may take the lead of overseas bankers and make a foray into Shanghai's bankcard sector as the bank is planning to jointly issue a bankcard with a local bank, today's Shanghai Morning Post reported.
According to Fu Jianhua, governor of Shanghai Bank, HSBC's local partner for the card project, the card抯 account will be only settled in US dollars,.
He said the two banks will cooperate with VISA in issuing the card.
Close sources to the deal expected the issue will be staged as soon as early next month.
However, a HSBC senior official denied the timetable, only saying the bank is still studying the so-called co-brand card project.
"We're co-operating with Shanghai Bank on the card project, but it's too early to specify the time of the issue," said Aman Mehta, HSBC Asia Pacific Chief Executive Officer.
"All details will come out only after the proposal gets approval from the local banking authority," he added.
Like HSBC, US-based Citibank is the other overseas bank that's waiting for the banking authority approval for entry into the local card market.  But their bankcard plan may not be as smooth as HSBC抯.
Citibank announced the card plan in April after formally launching a bankcard center with the local bank Pudong Development Bank. It has planned to upgrade the card center to a joint company to issue a bankcard for both renminbi and foreign currency business.
However, the China Banking Regulatory Commission Shanghai Supervision Bureau will probably throw out the renminbi-forex bankcard proposal.
The local bureau of the country's central banking watchdog, only launched last week in Shanghai, has recently denied the possibility of approving multi-currencies bankcards, but indicated "debit cards for a single foreign currency may be more probable" to get the nod.