Visa ready for China market opening

Disputes between Visa and UnionPay intensified in 2010, after Visa warned banks not to adopt the UnionPay payment system to process international transactions for co-branded Visa and UnionPay credit cards circulated in places other than the Chinese mainland.

"We always believe that an increasingly open market could generate more competition, which will bring innovation and provide consumers with better choices and services," Liao said.

"As prices go down and the whole market grows bigger, benefits could be shared by all parties, including consumers and financial institutions."

Visa has set a target that more than half of its global business will be generated from markets other than the United States by 2015.

"We are already very close to that, and China has become the largest market among non-US markets in terms of payments volume, with rapid growth," Liao said.

About 60 percent of Visa's global payments come from debit cards. And in China, growth of debit card payments is faster than that of credit cards, according to Liao.

Visa has signed cooperation agreements with 25 commercial lenders in China, and there are 80 million dual-branded, dual-currency Visa cards in circulation, even without access to yuan-denominated business, Liao said.

He added that if the domestic payment market could be opened to foreign players such as Visa, the company could bring 50 years of experience and products to the market.

He used the example of V.me — a new service from Visa that lets people shop without sharing their card account information with a seller during payments — as a product which has been launched in many markets, and can be used worldwide and connected with global merchants, which could be introduced to China.

"As the Chinese market opens to us, I believe we could have the opportunity to bring such products here, and provide more diversified options to consumers."

Liao said Visa's expertise in online transaction security could also be used in China, such as on verification and providing security solution for online traders.