ith efforts to elbow its way into the U.S. credit card processing market stymied, at least for now, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. may be pursuing greener pastures in Asia.

The retailing giant has inked a deal with a China bank to be the first foreign retailer to issue credit cards in the nascent Chinese market, according to a report out of the Beijing bureau of The Wall Street Journal.

An executive with China's Bank of Communications said the card will be issued through six Wal-Mart stores initially and "soon spread over the country," the newspaper reported. No official word has come from Wal-Mart's Bentonville, Ark., headquarters, but company officials in China confirmed a credit card would be launched soon in cooperation with Bank of Communications.

Officials said it would be a general purpose credit card that features incentives for using it at Wal-Mart stores. The Wal-Mart China Web site lists about 50 Wal-Mart-owned stores in that country www.wal-martchina.com/english/walmart/wminchina.htm).

Wal-Mart has asked U.S. regulators to OK plans to acquire a limited-purpose bank, which the retailer claims it wants for handling its own card processing. The charter application, however, is on hold until at least early next year under a moratorium imposed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in late July.

Wal-Mart also issues co-branded credit cards through GE Money Bank and Discover Financial Services LLC. Bank of Communications' credit card unit is a joint venture with HSBC Holdings plc. A London-based company, it also owns HSBC Bank USA, N.A., which issues MasterCard Wordwide-branded credit and debit cards. HSBC also has a joint venture with Global Payments Inc. for merchant acquiring in the Asia-Pacific region.

Asia-Pacific is considered one of most populated regions in the world and one of the biggest growth areas for payment card products. Whereas the average American had 2.6 payment cards as of 2005, the per-capita ratio of cards in Asia-Pacific was just 0.2. That comparison was in a fact sheet provided by Global Payments and HSBC when the companies announced a joint venture last year.

Financial Insights, a Framingham, Mass., research firm with a significant Singapore-based practice, reported in 2005 that China is rapidly building out its retail payments structure.

The growth is in anticipation of the foreign visitor onslaught the 2008 Olympic Games and the 2010 World's Fair are expected to bring to the country.