The government is promoting mobile payments, in the hope that foreigners would be able to navigate Taiwan more easily, a government official said yesterday.
While attending a public hearing hosted by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Jason Hsu (許毓仁) on mobile payments, Wu Ming-ji (吳明機), director-general of the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Administration, discussed ways in which the government would promote mobile payments in Taiwan to make it more convenient for locals and foreigners to make purchases.
The government is looking to create a foundation — including equipment and regulations — for the use of mobile payments, to expand the number of places in which the services can be used, and to strengthen the marketing and promotion of the mobile services themselves, Hsu said.
The goal is to reach a level of pervasiveness that would make it possible for foreigners in Taiwan to use their mobile payment apps to pay for things anywhere in the nation, which would help promote Taiwan’s global image, Hsu added.
Consumers in Taiwan spent more than NT$7 billion (US$233 million) through three major international mobile payment services in the last seven months of this year, statistics released on Wednesday by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) showed.
Speaking at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee, FSC Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said spending through the three digital wallet services — Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay — totaled NT$7.15 billion by the end of October.
Apply Pay started providing payment services for credit card holders in Taiwan on March 29, making it the first of the major foreign mobile payment platforms available in Taiwan.
Samsung Pay and Android Pay launched services in Taiwan in early May and June respectively.
Local holders of 2.23 million credit cards had signed up to use the three major international mobile payment systems as of the end of October, Koo said.
In addition to credit cards, the FSC has expanded the services to debit card holders, with Apple Pay pioneering the expansion, the commission said.
Since Visa and MasterCard have already been working with mobile payment service providers, the new debit card service has been first applied to those two international companies, the FSC said.
The Bankers’ Association of the ROC (銀行公會) has adjusted transaction security standards to allow banks to include debit cards in mobile payment services, the commission said.
CTBC Bank (中國信託銀行), the flagship banking entity of CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控), is the first bank in Taiwan to provide its debit card holders with the new services on a trial basis, starting from Wednesday last week.
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