Apple is gearing-up to launch Apple Pay, its mobile-payment service, in China by early February 2016. The Cupertino tech giant apparently plans to roll out the service before the Chinese New Year.

Apple has managed to team up with four state-run banks in China and look forward to bring Apple Pay before Feb. 8, China’s Spring Festival holiday, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

The report also clarifies that Apple still needs to overcome major regulatory issues in China. Apple CEO Tim Cook, however, apparently won’t leave any stone unturned to launch the service in the lucrative Chinese market. The four state-owned banks are Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China, reports Mac Rumors.

UnionPay still reigns as the only interbank network in China, which blocked MasterCard and Visa from entering the market. State-run organisations do offer credit cards allied with American Express, MasterCard or Visa, however.

Currently, Alipay and Tenpay together control nearly 64 percent of the market share for electronic mobile payments. In 2015, Apple's increasing popularity in China has been evident from the head turning first quarter results of the tech giant, where it sold 61 million iPhones in the first three months. Currently, China is the second biggest market for Apple after the U.S.

Starting October 2014, Apple first rolled out the service in the U.S., before making it available for users in the UK in July 2015. Last week, Apple rolled out the digital wallet service in Australia and Canada. In 2016, Apple Pay will also be launched in Hong Kong, Singapore and Spain.

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