EasyCard Corp (悠遊卡) yesterday said it would launch a new electronic payment service in the fourth quarter after the Financial Supervisory Commission approved its license application on Monday.
The approval makes the company the seventh to receive such a license, the commission said on Tuesday.
With the new license, EasyCard would be able to expand its services and process larger transactions, as well as transfer money between electronic payment accounts held by different users, the commission added.
Photo: Huang Chien-hao, Taipei Times
EasyCard, the biggest electronic stored-value card in the nation, plans to launch the new service in the fourth quarter, Ting Chen (陳亭如), who was promoted to chairwoman last month, said in a statement.
The company plans to establish a virtual electronic payment platform to enable users to transfer funds and pay digitally with a few clicks, removing the restraint of time and place, she said.
EasyCard’s micropayment feature has been broadly rolled out in Taiwan’s public transit system and retail outlets, and the new service would strengthen its cooperation with these partners, the statement said.
Although the digital payment field is dominated by two major players — locally developed Jkopay Co (街口電子支付) and Line Pay, a wholly owned subsidiary of LINE Biz+ Taiwan Ltd (台灣連線) — EasyCard does not consider the two peers as its greatest rival, communication officer Chou Mei-li (周美里) told the Taipei Times by telephone yesterday.
“We think that cash is our biggest rival, and we have to provide a tool that is convenient enough for consumers to feel that they can only live with an electronic payment service,” Chou said.
Asked if the company would promote the new service by offering reward points, Chou said that EasyCard would release more details after setting up a preliminary mechanism.
Among the five electronic stored-value card firms, EasyCard accounts for 65 percent of the market in terms of the number of cards issued, with about 69.9 million cards in circulation as of December last year, commission data showed.
The company also accounted for 73 percent, or NT$5.61 billion (US$182 million), of total spending using electronic stored-value cards in December last year, the data showed.
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