Tencent and Visa are expanding their partnership in cross-border payments and artificial intelligence-powered commerce, as the US payments company moves closer to entering China’s domestic bank card market following fresh regulatory approvals.
The agreement, announced on Thursday, will focus on improving payment services for international travelers, expanding cross-border money transfers and exploring new ways to use AI agents in online shopping. It deepens a relationship that began at least in 2019, when Visa announced plans to allow international cardholders to make payments through Tencent’s Weixin Pay, known internationally as WeChat Pay, while visiting China.
The expanded collaboration comes as Beijing grants new operating permissions to foreign financial companies, including Visa and Citigroup, against a backdrop of renewed US-China engagement over market access.
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Under a memorandum of understanding, Tencent and Visa will explore ways to simplify payments for travelers entering and leaving China. They also plan to develop solutions enabling travelers to pay participating merchants through the Weixin Pay and Visa networks, subject to regulatory requirements.
The companies will also seek to expand cooperation through Visa Direct, Visa’s money transfer service, to make it easier for overseas users to transfer funds into the Weixin Pay ecosystem.
The partnership offers Tencent a route to strengthen the international reach of its payment platform by connecting it with Visa’s global card network, and Visa, with deeper integration with Weixin Pay, could improve its ability to serve international travelers and merchants operating across Chinese and overseas markets.
The arrangement does not mean that Visa can operate a domestic card-clearing business in China. Instead, it expands cooperation in cross-border payments while Visa pursues the regulatory steps needed to enter the domestic market.
The partnership will also explore agentic commerce, an emerging model in which AI agents help consumers discover products, compare options, and complete purchases.
The concept could change how digital transactions are initiated and processed. Instead of consumers manually navigating shopping platforms, AI agents could perform parts of the purchasing process on their behalf, potentially creating new requirements for payment authentication, fraud prevention, and transaction security.
For payment networks and digital platforms, the opportunity is to make transactions more convenient while maintaining trust and control over how purchases are authorized. However, analysts have tied widespread adoption to regulatory compliance, consumer confidence and the ability to establish clear safeguards when AI systems act on behalf of users.
Dowson Tong, Tencent’s senior executive vice president and chief executive of its Cloud and Smart Industries Group, said the partnership would combine Tencent’s AI capabilities with Visa’s global network to improve cross-border payments.
“We hope to create more seamless commerce experiences for consumers and new opportunities for businesses, both in China and internationally,” Tong said.
The announcement extends Tencent’s efforts to build international payment connections beyond Visa. In December last year, Mastercard and Midas, Tencent’s international payments platform, announced plans to integrate Mastercard’s Click to Pay and payment-security technologies into Midas’ overseas payment solutions.
These arrangements underpin how global payment networks and Chinese technology companies are seeking to connect their respective systems as consumers and businesses increasingly transact across borders. They also allow payment providers to explore new services without necessarily replacing the platforms and networks already used by merchants and customers.
The move means that Tencent, whose Weixin ecosystem combines messaging, commerce and payments, could use broader cross-border connectivity to make its services more useful to international visitors and overseas users. For Visa and Mastercard, partnerships with established Chinese platforms provide potential access to payment activity linked to China’s large consumer and merchant base.
Regulatory Approvals Signal Wider Market-Access Push
Visa’s partnership announcement follows approval from the People’s Bank of China earlier this month to begin preparations for a domestic bank card-clearing business. The approval moves the company closer to operating in a market it has sought to enter for more than four decades.
Domestic card clearing is distinct from processing international payments. A local clearing business would allow Visa to compete more directly in China’s domestic bank card infrastructure, subject to the remaining regulatory requirements and the scope of its eventual operating license.
The distinction is commercially significant because China’s domestic payments market is shaped by established local networks and digital payment platforms. Visa’s cross-border arrangements can expand its reach among international travelers, but participation in domestic clearing would create a different opportunity to serve local transactions.
Citigroup has also received approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission to establish a wholly owned securities company, Citigroup Securities (China), in Shanghai. The venture is expected to provide equities brokerage, securities underwriting, research and principal trading to domestic and international clients.
Citi said it would complete the remaining regulatory procedures before commencing operations. The approval therefore represents progress towards establishing the business rather than confirmation that it has already begun operating.
The developments come as Beijing continues to open parts of its financial sector to foreign companies. CNBC reported that US officials raised market access for Visa, Mastercard and Citigroup during bilateral meetings in Bangkok, citing a US Treasury official.
According to the official, the regulatory approvals were also part of an agreement reached by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting in Washington last month.
The timing places the Tencent-Visa agreement within a broader effort to expand commercial opportunities for US financial firms in China. Regulatory approvals could improve access to a market with substantial domestic payment activity, but foreign companies will still need to navigate licensing requirements, local competition, and restrictions governing financial services.
The combination of cross-border cooperation and preparations for domestic clearing creates two potential avenues for growth for Visa. The partnership with Tencent can strengthen payment connections for travelers and overseas users, while a domestic clearing operation could eventually broaden its role in China’s financial infrastructure.
The agreement also gives both companies an opportunity to test how AI-enabled commerce can be integrated with established payment networks.