Hong Kong's fifth-largest lender by assets Bank of East Asia has received final approval from regulators to issue debit cards in China. Other foreign banks, including HSBC, Citigroup and Standard Chartered have had the same initiative, but only Bank of East Asia has managed to complete preparations in regard to information technology infrastructure and payment services.

The Chinese regulations require that foreign banks locate IT support and data centres for card operations in a mainland Chinese city, instead of operating through offshore data centres, in the attempt to avoid financial security problems.

In 2007, Bank of East Asia, HSBC, Standard Chartered and Citigroup got approval to initiate locally incorporated businesses. As locally incorporated foreign banks, they are authorised to apply to issue debit cards in China. The other foreign banks are allowed to issue together with local partners only co-branded credit cards, usually US dollar- and yuan-denominated ones. Both Citigroup and HSBC have issued dual currency-denominated credit cards across China as part of an agreement with local banking institutions, but neither Bank of East Asia nor Standard Chartered offers such services in China.

Standard Chartered is in the final stage of preparations to roll out its debit card in China.