The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has granted preparatory approval to American Express to build a clearing and settlement network in mainland China. To handle processing for local and in-bound American Express card transactions, Amex has formed a joint venture with LianLian Yintong Electronic Payment Company. LianLian, which licensed the Serve prepaid card account management platform from Amex in 2012 to perform mobile phone top-ups, operates several business lines. It handles collections in renminbi from Chinese buyers who use direct debit to make payments online at foreign providers of ...