The idea of paying with credit cards anytime and anywhere via smartphones and tablets may soon become a reality in Taiwan as major local lenders join with US credit card giant Visa Inc in launching a mobile point of sale service (MPOS), Visa Taiwan country manager Macro Ma (麻少華) told a media briefing.
MPOS is a card payment acceptance service that turns a smartphone or a tablet computer into a acceptance point of sale device via a card swipe and/or chip reading, allowing merchants to accept card payments anytime and anywhere, Ma said.
The service, which already in use in the US, Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Japan, Australia and South Korea, is a good fit for Taiwan given the prevalence of mobile devices, Ma said.
PARTNERS
Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託銀行), Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行), Taishin International Bank (台新銀行), Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行), Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行), EnTie Commercial Bank (安泰銀行) and Union Bank of Taiwan (聯邦銀行) are all in the final stage of preparation, Ma said.
MPOS provides easier and quicker payment solutions that are particularly good for small firms predominantly accepting cash, companies with delivery services or lower volume outlets, companies with a need to extend their point of sale presence economically and large corporations with a delivery service or supply chain management, said Corbin Sun (辛瑋達), head of Visa’s acceptance business in North Asia.
For merchants, MPOS has the benefits of lower setup costs, operating efficiency, payment convenience and cost reduction linked with e-receipt issuance, Sun said.
For cardholders, MPOS offers a more flexible and environmentally friendly means of payment, although the new choice requires some trust on the part of the consumer, Sun said.
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