Non-cash payments rose from 38.29 percent of overall payments in 2018 to 40.91 percent last year, Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) data showed yesterday, a long way from a government goal of 52 percent this year.
Non-cash payment tools would not dominate rapidly, as people still like to use cash, FSC Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) told a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee in Taipei.
The popularity of cash reflects the rarity of counterfeit New Taiwan dollar bills in circulation, how safe people feel with cash as public security is good and the convenience of withdrawing cash at more than 29,000 automated teller machines (ATM) nationwide, Koo said.
Among private consumption of NT$9.86 trillion (US$329.24 billion) last year, NT$4.03 trillion was done electronically — ie, with credit cards, debit cards, electronic payment tools such as Line Pay Money or Jkos Pay, or electronic stored value cards such as EasyCard — the commission said.
However, if ATM transfers of NT$915.3 billion from individual account holders to corporate accounts are included, total non-cash payments were NT$4.95 trillion last year and the ratio of non-cash payments was 50.1 percent, the commission said.
“Given that many local consumers transferred money to online retailers such as Momo.com Inc (富邦媒體) and PChome Online Inc (網路家庭) to pay for items, that should be added to non-cash payments,” Banking Bureau Deputy Director-General Huang Kuang-hsi (黃光熙) told a news conference in New Taipei City.
The non-cash ratio has steadily risen over the past five years, from 27.64 percent in 2015 to 30.05 percent in 2016, 33.14 percent in 2017, 38.29 percent in 2018 and 40.91 percent last year, the commission said.
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