Local banks yesterday launched joint mobile payment services based on QR code technology in a bid to tap the fast-growing financial technology (fintech) business and outcompete foreign payment tools.
“Taiwan Pay aims to provide more convenient, quicker payment services using QR code technology via smartphones, which have become a necessity in daily life,” Deputy Minister of Finance Su Jain-rong (蘇建榮) told a news conference.
Mobile payments are divided into two camps: one powered by near field communication (NFC) technology and the other using QR code technology, the ministry said.
The ministry spearheaded the development of Taiwan Pay to help the nation become a regional technology hub and to compete with Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay.
Unlike foreign mobile payment tools that function like credit cards, Taiwan Pay can issue invoices and will allow users to pay taxes, utility bills and school fees in the near future, Su said.
The incompatibility of different foreign payment services has limited their growth and prevalence, although they have attracted more than 1 million customers since their entry into the local market in the second quarter of the year, he said.
Taiwan Pay hopes to attract 6 million users in its first year, given that it can be used on all smartphone models and brands, the deputy minister said.
Twelve Taiwanese financial institutions — including all eight state-run banks and Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank (上海商業儲蓄銀行), Shin Kong Commercial Bank (新光銀行), Jih Sun International Commercial Bank (日盛銀行) and O-Bank (王道商業銀行) — are offering clients Taiwan Pay and another 13 are expected to join, Su said.
Community-level lenders, post offices and semi-official financial institutes are also expected to come on board.
“We expect all domestic banks to rally behind Taiwan Pay and aim to expand its reach overseas,” Su said.
Taiwan Pay is limited to debit card use, but is to add credit cards soon, he said.
“Taiwan Pay will gain rapid popularity as it requires low installation costs and guarantees safe transactions,” Hua Nan Financial Holding Co (華南金控) chairman Wu Tang-chieh (吳當傑) said.
Several retailers, bakeries, department stores and foundations have offered Taiwan Pay users discounts and gifts.
TECH TITAN: Pandemic-era demand for semiconductors turbocharged the nation’s GDP per capita to surpass South Korea’s, but it still remains half that of Singapore Taiwan is set to surpass South Korea this year in terms of wealth for the first time in more than two decades, marking a shift in Asia’s economic ranks made possible by the ascent of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電). According to the latest forecasts released on Thursday by the central bank, Taiwan’s GDP is expected to expand 4.55 percent this year, a further upward revision from the 4.45 percent estimate made by the statistics bureau last month. The growth trajectory puts Taiwan on track to exceed South Korea’s GDP per capita — a key measure of living standards — a
Samsung Electronics Co shares jumped 4.47 percent yesterday after reports it has won approval from Nvidia Corp for the use of advanced high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, which marks a breakthrough for the South Korean technology leader. The stock closed at 83,500 won in Seoul, the highest since July 31 last year. Yesterday’s gain comes after local media, including the Korea Economic Daily, reported that Samsung’s 12-layer HBM3E product recently passed Nvidia’s qualification tests. That clears the components for use in the artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators essential to the training of AI models from ChatGPT to DeepSeek (深度求索), and finally allows Samsung
READY TO HELP: Should TSMC require assistance, the government would fully cooperate in helping to speed up the establishment of the Chiayi plant, an official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its investment plans in Taiwan are “unchanged” amid speculation that the chipmaker might have suspended construction work on its second chip packaging plant in Chiayi County and plans to move equipment arranged for the plant to the US. The Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported earlier yesterday that TSMC had halted the construction of the chip packaging plant, which was scheduled to be completed next year and begin mass production in 2028. TSMC did not directly address whether construction of the plant had halted, but said its investment plans in Taiwan remain “unchanged.” The chipmaker started
MORTGAGE WORRIES: About 34% of respondents to a survey said they would approach multiple lenders to pay for a home, while 29.2% said they would ask family for help New housing projects in Taiwan’s six special municipalities, as well as Hsinchu city and county, are projected to total NT$710.65 billion (US$23.61 billion) in the upcoming fall sales season, a record 30 percent decrease from a year earlier, as tighter mortgage rules prompt developers to pull back, property listing platform 591.com (591新建案) said yesterday. The number of projects has also fallen to 312, a more than 20 percent decrease year-on-year, underscoring weakening sentiment and momentum amid lingering policy and financing headwinds. New Taipei City and Taoyuan bucked the downturn in project value, while Taipei, Hsinchu city and county, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung
RSS