Citi & Bank of Shanghai unveil payments solution for foreign travelers in China

By Gloria Mathias

Citi and Bank of Shanghai have launched a unique payment solution on Bank of Shanghai’s TourCard. The TourCard aims to provide international tourists with a straightforward, cost-efficient, and more streamlined Chinese yuan renminbi (CNY) payment journey while travelling in China.

Citi’s USD Clearing solution and its full-value transfers facilitate the payment service, ensuring the final beneficiary receives their money at full value with no deductions. The innovation also enables travellers to add funds to their TourCard digital account with the Bank of Shanghai from another source, making the payment experience smoother when settling expenses locally.

With Bank of Shanghai’s TourCard solution powered by Citi, travellers can get access to local currency in China by linking a Bank of Shanghai CNY virtual account to their respective digital wallets in the Bank of Shanghai TourCard mini-app. The funding and final return of funds will happen through a Citi full-value transfer solution powered by Swift Go and using Citi’s proprietary SwiftGo converter. Bank of Shanghai’s TourCard is a prepaid card designed explicitly for overseas travelers to make mobile payments in China.

Swift Go is Swift’s fast, secure, and predictable low-value payment solution. It offers end-to-end visibility on payment status and transparency on fees and FX costs.

“Our collaboration with Bank of Shanghai provides an end-to-end solution for international travellers so they can enjoy their travel experience throughout China without having to worry about their payment method. This is another example of how our Services business continues to deliver integrated payment solutions for our clients and their customers,” shared Dawid Janas, Head of Global Clearing and FI Payments, Citi Services.

“This innovative product we developed with Citi enriches the top-up channel of TourCard. We are convinced that our optimised service will enhance payment convenience and provide overseas travellers with an excellent mobile payment experience in China,” said Hu Debin, Vice President and CIO of the Bank of Shanghai.