A private local bank in Burma hopes to issue credit cards by the year’s end, The Wall Street Journal reports. Cooperative Bank (CB Bank) hopes to get approval to introduce Visa and MasterCard-branded cards to Burmese customers in the next few months, the newspaper reported Tuesday. Local banks are prohibited from issuing credit cards by the Central Bank, which is set to become more autonomous from the government as part of the country’s reforms. Issuing credit cards to local people could encourage more merchants to install point-of-sale terminals, the newspaper said, allowing tourists to make large purchases with foreign cards.