The card will allow its cardholders a 5 percent reward as well as access to discounts on 42-thousand different items related to education, restaurants, entertainment and other fields.

 

The card will be launched in cooperation with the International Student Identity Association.

 

MasterCard says it eyes 100-thousand issues of the new card next year and 90 percent coverage¹ of all overseas students in five years.

 

China Ministry² of Education reported that Chinese outbound students exceeded 4 million last year.

 

MasterCard's move follows the announcement by Chinese authorities in October to open the country's bank card sector³ to foreign players.

 

Though details of that opening up have yet to be released, observers do expect fierce competition in the Chinese bank card business, which currently is monopolized⁴ by China's UnionPay cards. 

 

For a further look at the issue, we're now joined live by Cao Can, CRI's financial commentator⁵.

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