Foreign News: AMEX into China, Supermarkets win over ATM operators on appeal 12 November 2018 4:51PM Banking Day staff Foreign news, American Express, Authorised deposit-taking institutions, China UnionPay, Finance regulation, Payment facility provider, Payments, mobile & wallets American Express has won approval for a clearing and settlement license from the Chinese central bank, allowing it to become the first foreign card scheme to be granted direct access to China's bank card market, reports Finextra. AMEX has entered into a joint-venture with local company LianLian to build a network business that will enable charges on AMEX branded cards to be cleared and settled domestically by the joint venture. Until now, foreign card company have been restricted to pairing with state-controlled monopoly Union Pay. Mastercard and Visa are awaiting approval on their own licence applications. A UK court has ordered that supermarket chains and other retailers charged business rates on ATM's installed in their stores must be refunded £300 million by the ATM operators. It follows a "last ditch appeal" against the fees brought by Tesco and Sainsbury's in a dispute that began in 2013, when retailers began being charged an average of £3000 per machine in their stores, backdated to 2010, reports Finextra.