E.Sun Bank (玉山銀行) on Wednesday issued a cobranded credit card with Pi Mobile Technology Inc (拍付國際) in an attempt to increase its mobile payment business and fend off growing competition from non-financial players.
The banking arm of E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) partnered with with Pi, a subsidiary of PChome Online Inc (網路家庭), as the firms shared a need to expand mobile payment usage in Taiwan as technology becomes a more important part of the banking experience, E.Sun Financial president Joseph Huang (黃男州) said.
“As the nation’s third-largest credit card issuer, E.Sun Bank will not stay on the sidelines while technology is reshaping the banking industry,” Huang told a news conference to promote the new credit card and Pi Mobile Wallet app.
The bank aims to be a leading player in financial innovation and has taken steps to deliver on that promise, Huang said.
E.Sun is the second local lender to collaborate with Pi after CTBC Bank (中信銀行) entered a cooperation with the firm in 2015 as Taiwanese businesses seek to groom their own payment service providers in a market dominated by Line Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Google Pay.
To attract customers, E.Sun Bank offers cardholders refunds of 2.5 to 4.5 percent if they use the system at FamilyMart (全家便利商店), the nation’s No. 2 convenience store chain, or for Taiwan Taxi Co (台灣大車隊) rides.
Most mobile payments are made at convenience stores and department stores, and on taxis, a recent survey by the Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC, 產業情報研究所) showed.
That explains why E.Sun teamed up with FamilyMart, while CTBC Bank has joined forces with convenience store chain 7-Eleven.
Huang declined to comment on earnings targets, only saying that E.Sun Bank is the top mobile payment player with related revenues growing fivefold by transaction value over the past year.
There is still ample room for growth as mobile phones and personal computers grow more popular and central to people’s daily lives, Huang said.
MasterCard Taiwan president Eva Chen (陳懿文) said that more than 28 billion “things” are expected to go digital by 2021, boding well for mobile payments.
The Pi wallet app has achieved significant market penetration since its launch three years ago and allows users to pay parking tickets, utility bills, credit card charges and medical expenses, PChome chairman Jan Hung-tze (詹宏志) said.
The app would keep expanding its partnerships to help advance the government’s bid to raise mobile payment penetration to 90 percent by 2025, Jan said.
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