Taiwan hopes to facilitate a mechanism by the end of August that would allow Chinese tourists to make purchases using their China Unionpay automatic teller machine (ATM) cards (中國銀聯卡), a top-ranking Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) official said yesterday.
“All their purchases in [New Taiwan dollar] currency will be denominated into US dollars and cleared the following day in Hong Kong,” FSC vice chairwoman Susan Chang (張秀蓮) told a media briefing yesterday.
The commission has authorized the nation’s National Credit Card Center (NCCC, 聯合信用卡中心) to begin talks with their Chinese counterparts, who may require the approval of the Chinese financial regulator to implement the mechanism.
The scheme would make the Chinese yuan officially accepted on a widespread basis in time for the arrival of Chinese tourists, who are expected to start arriving next month.
The center has 70,000 outlets in Taiwan, Chang said.
She said, however, that points of purchase, including hotels and shopping centers, would have to change their hardware, as it is not compatible with traditional magnetic cards.
As magnetic cards are easier to forge, the NCCC will also impose stricter risk management, Chang said.
There are 1.5 billion China Unionpay cards in circulation in China. Credit cards remain unpopular there, she said.
China Unionpay operates the bank payment system and the network that links up ATMs in China. Its cards are accepted in 29 countries outside China.
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