Local Internet companies yesterday supported the Financial Supervisory Commission’s (FSC) stepping in to draw clauses of a draft act governing third-party payment services.
“We hope the commission can solve the current conflict and make the draft of the act on its own for the sake of Taiwan’s third-party payment service development,” several companies said in a joint statement.
The companies include Taiwan’s largest smart card company, EasyCard Corp (悠遊卡), video game company Cayenne Entertainment Technology Co (紅心辣椒) and Allpay Financial Information Service Co Ltd (歐付寶).
Allpay is operated by MacroWell OMG Digital Entertainment Co (茂為歐買尬數位科技), which teamed up with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s (阿里巴巴) Alipay.com Co (支付寶) in the second half of last year.
Yesterday’s statement rebutted PChome Online Inc (網路家庭) chairman Jan Hung-tze’s (詹宏志) statement earlier this week asking for permission to have Internet companies draw up the draft act’s clauses.
The companies said it was inappropriate to assign the task to either the Bankers Association of the Republic of China (銀行公會) or the third-party payment services operators.
They said it might be a conflict of interest for either the Bankers Association or the e-commerce providers, if they were tasked to draw up the clauses.
Since the Cabinet requested the Ministry of Economic Affairs to draft a bill regarding third-party payment services in August 2012, the ministry has held three public hearings and the commission has also held four public hearings.
As a result, the companies said in the statement that the commission should step in to solve the controversy and to take charge of completing the act as soon as possible.
Taiwan’s progress in third-party payment services has already fallen behind international peers, such as those in the US and China, so the government should push forward legislation, the companies said.
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
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure