Hoping to capitalize on the popularity of the FIFA World Cup, which kicks off next week, Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託商銀) rolled out the world's first co-branded, contactless wristwatch credit payment tool yesterday, in an attempt to give a boost to the nation's lackluster credit card market, which has been hurt recently by the consumer bad loans issue.
"We have waited for a long time ... and it is time to get back to normalcy and take the chance to offer our customers new products," Charles Lo (羅聯福), vice chairman of Chinatrust Commercial, told a press conference yesterday.
The market is recovering and was expected to return to normal soon, Lo said, citing the dropping amount of delinquencies and the rising number of indebted cardholders repaying debts following the introduction of a card debt negotiation mechanism.
Up to 80.16 percent of debtors had repaid their bad loans by the end of last month, marginally up from April's 79 percent, according to figures from the Financial Supervisory Commission.
The situation was better than expected and the market could normalize if the repayment ratio can continue to exceed the current level, Lo said.
Chinatrust Commercial, the nation's largest credit card issuer, is expected to turn a profit in the fourth quarter, he said.
The lender incurred a deficit of NT$2.12 billion (US$6.61 million) for the first four months of this year after making a provision expense of NT$11.41 billion to cover its bad debts.
To impress the market, Chinatrust Commercial teamed up with MasterCard International to issue a limited edition 3,000 sets of its FIFA World Cup credit payment products, with each package comprising a water-proof watch with built-in chip using MasterCard's Paypass sensor technology and a credit card, which costs applicants NT$2,400.
The watch can be used to purchase goods worth NT$3,000 without signature in more than 400 stores nationwide, including Wellcome supermarkets and IS Coffee stores, while goods with higher price tags will require the consumer to use their credit card to prevent fraud, the bank said.
Chinatrust is not the only financial institution in Taiwan to try and cash in on the quadrennial soccer tournament, which attracts more viewers worldwide than any other sporting event.
Taipei Fubon Bank (台北富邦銀行) also launched 30,000 sets of its own three-dimensional, football-shaped, keychain-sized contactless payment tool last month.
"We are targeting high-income soccer fans and have attracted over 10,000 applications for our platinum card since the rollout," said Tiger Chan (
The bank, which is also the nation's exclusive lottery issuer, will offer new games for lottery lovers to spur sales amid the popularity of the soccer tournament, it said earlier this week.
People will have the chance to win millions of dollars by using their vouchers to bet on the championship winners or countries that squeeze into the semifinals and quarterfinals
RSS