Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行) yesterday launched a new credit card service that allows its clients to pay by smartphone, making it the first mobile point-of-sale (MPOS) provider as domestic banks seek to tap the emerging mobile payment business.
The banking subsidiary of SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) is the first lender to take advantage of the six-month pilot MPOS system.
Only about 3,000 stores now accept the MPOS credit cards issued by Bank SinoPac, data showed.
The MPOS card reader costs retailers between NT$1,000 and NT$2,000, US$33.29 and US$66.59) much lower than traditional credit card reading devices which are priced at more than NT$10,000, a competitive advantage that gives stores the incentive to own one, Bank SinoPac president Tina Chiang (江威娜) said.
All store owners need to do is plug the mPOS reader into the headphone socket in their smartphone and the transaction details are then uploaded to Bank SinoPac, Chiang said, adding that mobile payments are as safe as ordinary credit card payments since the new reader has no more access to a client’s information.
About 60,000 MPOS devices are in use in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Thailand and Malaysia, according to MasterCard Inc, SinoPac Bank’s partner and the second-largest credit card network in the world.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in