The Shanghai branch of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CRBC) had received applications for debit card issuance from Citigroup and Bank of East Asia, while the other two, HSBC and Standard Chartered, were expected to apply soon, said Wang Huaqing, assistant to the chairman of the CBRC.

Mr Wang said foreign banks were currently limited to issuing debit cards, and it was unclear whether they would be allowed to issue credit cards in the future.

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"Currently, we are receiving applications only for debit card issuance instead of credit card issuance, due to current Chinese banking rules," Mr Wang told reporters on the sidelines of a banking summit in Shanghai.

He declined to give a timeframe for when foreign banks would begin issuing debit cards, saying only that the approval process was going very smoothly so far and a final decision would be up to CBRC's Beijing headquarters.

The four were also the first foreign banks to win Beijing's approval for local incorporation earlier this year and all four launched business operations at their wholly owned China units in April.

Foreign banks not incorporated domestically are not allowed to issue any type of bank cards independently, while those with domestically incorporated Chinese units must still apply to regulators for approval of any card issuance.

Debit cards in China allow the user to withdraw cash from automatic teller machines (ATMs) or to make payments directly to merchants that are bank partners, within the amount deposited in the account.

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