Visa International's Asia Pacific Board has endorsed a strategy to develop the payments markets in China and Japan from this August, Visa International announced on Saturday.

The company said additional focus, resources and expertise will be added to the two markets.

Rupert Keeley, president and chief executive officer of Visa International Asia Pacific, said that with banks now permitted to issue cards directly and with structural realignment of the banking sector underway which will see the entry of new players, the card payment industry is poised for significant potential growth.

He said that "during the critical period as we approach the opening up of the domestic market from the end of 2006 under the terms of China's accession to the World Trade Organization and given the substantial additional work that will arise from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, it is essential that we and our members in China do everything we can to understand and influence market developments."

He said China is a vast market both in terms of geography and business potential, so "our ability to have two highly experienced Mandarin-speaking managers spearhead the company's efforts based on the Chinese mainland is immensely valuable."

This strengthening of the company's management presence also reflects the strategic importance of the Chinese mainland to Visa members globally, the huge interest in China from the Visa International Board and the Asia Pacific Board's recent decision to back this with significantly increased investment over the next five years.

As for the Japan market, he said retail banking is relatively under-developed in Japan but this is likely to change rapidly in the coming years.

In Asia Pacific, Visa has a greater market share than all other payment card brands combined with 62 percent of all card purchases at the point of sale being made using Visa cards. There are currently 238 million Visa-branded cards in the region.

In Hong Kong, there are currently about 7.3 million Visa Cards in circulation, generating a retail sales volume of more than 128 billion HK dollars (16.4 billion US dollars) from the point of sale for the 12 months that ended on Dec. 31, 2004.

Source: Xinhua