Citi will become the first international bank to issue commercial credit cards in China, supplementing the three retail credit card accounts it launched in September.
 
It is the first global bank that has been given permission to produce cards for China independently. Manish Kohli, Citi’s global head of commercial cards, said, “[it] represents a significant milestone for Citi and the commercial card industry as a whole.”
 
The value of China’s credit card market is expected to surpass most, if not all other markets by the end of the decade. Citi’s main focus, according to chairman and chief executive of Citi China, Andrew Au, is to be in a position to “pursue [this] growth across multiple businesses.” In 2002 it was the first international bank to be allowed access to China’s retail banking market.

The cards will be available Renminbi-denominated through China UnionPay, and US Dollar-Denominated through Visa and MasterCard.
 
As of the second quarter of 2012, Citi Transactional Services, the part of the bank which holds the cards business, held over US$ 12 trillion in assets under custody. It averages over US$3 trillion worldwide transactions everyday.