The legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday passed a preliminary review of the draft act governing third-party payment services, paving the way for the faster development of local mobile payment services.
Legislators hope to pass the act in the first half of next year.
The committee performed a clause-by-clause review of three versions of the Payment Processing Institutions Act (電子支付機構管理條例草案): one from the Cabinet and others by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators Lee Guei-min (李貴敏) and Sun Ta-chien (孫大千).
“The final version of the act has been in line with our expectations, and we hope to implement it as quickly as possible, to help facilitate the development of domestic third-party payment service providers,” Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman William Tseng (曾銘宗) told reporters after the review.
The committee also lowered the threshold for local companies to launch third-party payment collection and transfer businesses by cutting the minimum paid-in capital requirement to NT$100 million (US$3.15 million), from the NT$300 million proposed in the Cabinet’s draft.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) and Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財), who backed the revision, said setting a high ceiling could raise barriers for young entrepreneurs, which may hurt the overall electronic payment industry’s development.
However, electronic payment service providers with a value deposit platform or system might be required to have paid-in capital of NT$500 million or more, based on the committee’s conclusion.
In addition, the committee revised upward the daily maximum limit of both deposits and transactions to NT$50,000 per person, from NT$30,000 set in the Cabinet’s draft.
The 58-article final draft passed by the committee might clear its second and the third reading by the end of this legislative session, which could be extended to late next month.
Legislators asked the Cabinet to implement the act within three months of its clearance of the legislature and pronouncement by the president.
The time line indicated that the commission must draft detailed and related laws for the act soon.
It ordered the Bankers Association of the Republic of China (銀行公會) to draw up and finish the clauses before the Lunar New Year, which falls in late February.
Despite the legislative progress, local firms interested in developing third-party payment services did not see their stocks rise yesterday.
PChome Online Inc (網路家庭) saw its stock fall 1.59 percent to close at NT$340.5 in Taipei trading, while PChome Store Inc (商店街市集) saw shares fall NT$0.5 to close at NT$206.5.
Various online game developers with interested in the sector, such as MacroWell OMG Digital Entertainment Co (茂為歐買尬數位科技) and Soft-World International Corp (智冠科技), also saw their shares decline yesterday.
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