The government’s goal of increasing the adoption of cashless payments to 90 percent by 2025 could be achieved five years ahead of schedule, Visa Inc said yesterday as the company expands the role of credit and debit cards using its technology.
The firm has rolled out a unified global standard for QR codes and vendors have quickened the pace of upgrading to contactless payment terminals, Visa country manager for Taiwan Marco Ma (麻少華) told a news conference in Taipei.
About 70 percent of consumers are willing to adopt contactless credit card payments, while 60 percent of active cards are ready to be used in mobile payment applications, Ma said, adding that 80 percent of local banks have made their systems compatible with contactless terminals.
These conditions and Taiwan’s 86.8 percent smartphone penetration rate provide a solid foundation for rapid growth, Ma said, adding that vendors on average update their payment terminals every five to six years.
Most notably, the company aims to bring contactless and mobile payments to debit card users, which is the biggest consumer demography in Taiwan, Ma said.
The company is hoping to convert the estimated 15 million Visa Debit Card users, who last year made total transactions of NT$10 billion (US$339 million), to contactless and mobile payment users, he said.
Visa is also looking to improve in-app purchases with its new QR code system, which would reduce data security risks for both vendors and consumers.
Previously, vendors required consumers to provide personal information, such as date of birth, that are not related to a purchase or transaction, which is offputting for some and the reason why many people prefer to use cash.
Using Visa’s revamped QR code service, consumers can verify payments through scanning QR codes, saving them the process of manually entering credit card and personal information.
Consumers would also be able to pay recurring bills by scanning QR codes with wallet services, such as the Ministry of Finance’s Taiwan Pay, from the second half of this year.
Visa, which is developing a unified global QR code standard with EMVCo, a consortium comprised of the world’s major credit card issuers, has urged local wallet app developers to adopt the new standard, which would help vendors accept payments from around the world.
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