Mastercard, the global payment technology giant, and Mastercard, a bank card clearing agency in China, jointly announced that Mastercard-branded bank cards issued in mainland China officially support Apple Pay cross-border transaction payments.
This move marks another key step in the deep integration of China’s financial opening up and global digital payments, bringing new safer, more convenient and private mobile payment options to cross-border consumption scenarios such as outbound travel, study abroad, and overseas shopping.
The first batch of this function covers the four major mainstream banks: Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, CITIC Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank.
In terms of credit cards, both MasterCard single-brand and dual-brand credit cards issued by the four banks are supported; in terms of debit cards, only MasterCard-branded debit cards issued by China CITIC Bank are supported.
Cardholders only need to upgrade their iPhone/iPad to iOS 17 and above, and their Apple Watch to watchOS 10 and above, and complete the card binding in two steps through the bank App or Apple Wallet App: open the Wallet App, click “+”, and follow the prompts to jump to the corresponding bank App to choose to add a card.
After the card is successfully bound, it can be used on all devices including iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad.
Apple Pay cross-border payment can cover three core scenarios: overseas offline contactless merchants, in-app, and web pages.
When paying offline, double-click the side button, and after being authenticated by Face ID/Touch ID/Device Password, place the device close to the payment terminal to complete the contact-free payment without touching the physical card or entering the password; when paying online, when shopping on overseas apps or websites, there is no need to register an account, repeatedly fill in the card number and delivery information, and the payment can be completed with one click, greatly improving the efficiency of cross-border online shopping.
In terms of security, Apple
Pay adopts the tokenization technology of Universal Connect and does not store the real card number. It only assigns an encrypted unique device account number and stores it in the device’s secure element chip. Each transaction generates a dynamic security code and uses biometric authentication to eliminate the risk of card number leakage from the source.
As a landmark achievement of China’s high-level opening up of the financial services industry, Wanshiwanglian has continued to promote the connection between global payment technology and local demand since its opening in May 2024.
The launch of Apple Pay cross-border payment not only completes Mastercard’s Apple Pay service layout in the entire Greater China region, but also enables China Mastercard to achieve “full scene coverage at home and abroad.”
Offline, it is universally accepted by more than 150 million MasterCard cooperative merchants around the world, covering high-frequency scenarios such as catering, retail, and transportation; online, it is bound to 30+ wallets domestically, and seamlessly connects with global mainstream e-commerce overseas to meet diverse needs such as shopping, business travel, and payment for studying abroad.
Mastercard Global Executive Vice President and President of Greater China, Chang Qing, said: “This is a breakthrough in technological innovation and a key step in the commitment of ‘connecting the world and serving China’. In the future, we will continue to introduce the world’s leading payment solutions to create a seamless, safe and intelligent digital payment ecosystem.” Chief Executive Officer of Mastercard
Official Zheng Xiaofei emphasized: “This move enriches Mastercard’s application scenarios and promotes the upgrade of the ‘portable, easy-to-use, high-security’ payment experience. We will link domestic and overseas resources to expand a full-scenario acceptance network and help China’s high-level two-way opening of the financial market.”
To celebrate the launch of the function, Bank of China launched an exclusive event.
The event period is from April 16 to June 30, 2026. The rules are to bind the Bank of China Mastercard to Apple Pay, and you can enjoy 100% of the consumption money back when you spend abroad, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan through the Mastercard network. The maximum single transaction is 5 US dollars (about 34 yuan). Each card is limited to 3 times. The monthly reward pool is capped at 60,000 US dollars. It is applicable to mainstream scenarios such as outbound travel, overseas study, and daily cross-border consumption.
As cross-border consumption continues to recover, the combination of Apple Pay + Mastercard will become the “new standard” for Chinese cardholders’ overseas payments, further narrowing the gap with global mobile payment experience and building a smoother financial bridge for Chinese users to “go global”.
