China UnionPay and U.S.-based Visa Inc have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to collaborate on payment security, Visa said on Thursday.
The MOU comes as Visa awaits regulations that would give it direct access to the Chinese market for clearing bank card transactions. The market was valued at $6.84 trillion in 2014.
China announced last year that it would open up the market to foreign payment networks from June.
Visa, the world's largest payment-network operator, said in January that it continues to work toward making a formal application in China while awaiting final regulations.
China UnionPay is responsible for all bank card transactions on the Chinese mainland. It has bank card clearing services in over 150 countries and regions.
