The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) is to investigate a buy-now-pay-later service offered on e-commerce platform Shopee to determine if it is likely to trigger a credit crisis for young consumers, the commission said yesterday.
The commission would examine the service mechanism that allows consumers without credit cards to delay payments by up to 45 days to see if the service exercises solid risk control, FSC Chairman Thomas Huang (黃天牧) told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee in Taipei.
The service, launched last month, enables consumers to pay later, or by the 15th day of the following month, without having to pay interest, Shopee’s Web site says.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The amount of payment that can be delayed is capped at NT$30,000, with wire transfer being the only financial tool for payment, it says.
The service also offers installment payment plans, but charges annual interest of up to 20 percent, the Web site says.
“The service is more accessible and convenient than credit cards,” Shopee said on its Web site.
The service is similar to banks’ credit card or lending service, as it enables consumers to shop first and pay later, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) told the meeting.
“I am worried that this service would encourage young consumers to buy things they cannot afford. What is more concerning is that if the service has no solid credit risk management, it might cause another bad debt crisis,” Lin said.
The spending limit of NT$30,000 per person sounds not too much, but younger consumers are likely to use the service, she added.
The commission would check whether it is the third-party payment service provider ShopeePay Taiwan Co (蝦皮支付) or the e-commerce platform operator Shopee Taiwan Co (樂購蝦皮) that offers the service, Banking Bureau Director-General Sherri Chuang (莊琇媛) said.
Both ShopeePay and Shopee Taiwan fall under the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ supervision due to their businesses of third-party payment services and e-commerce respectively.
However, Chuang said that the commission could have some degree of control over ShopeePay, as the firm is planning to apply for a license to run an electronic payment service in Taiwan.
The FSC should ask ShopeePay to halt the buy-now-pay-later service when the firm applies for the license, as e-payment companies are not allowed to provide loans, she said.
That is because e-payment companies already allow consumers to park money on their platforms, and if they were to grant loans, they would be too similar to banks, which are subject to tighter regulations, Chuang said.
Shiina Ito has had fewer Chinese customers at her Tokyo jewelry shop since Beijing issued a travel warning in the wake of a diplomatic spat, but she said she was not concerned. A souring of Tokyo-Beijing relations this month, following remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about Taiwan, has fueled concerns about the impact on the ritzy boutiques, noodle joints and hotels where holidaymakers spend their cash. However, businesses in Tokyo largely shrugged off any anxiety. “Since there are fewer Chinese customers, it’s become a bit easier for Japanese shoppers to visit, so our sales haven’t really dropped,” Ito
The number of Taiwanese working in the US rose to a record high of 137,000 last year, driven largely by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) rapid overseas expansion, according to government data released yesterday. A total of 666,000 Taiwanese nationals were employed abroad last year, an increase of 45,000 from 2023 and the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed. Overseas employment had steadily increased between 2009 and 2019, peaking at 739,000, before plunging to 319,000 in 2021 amid US-China trade tensions, global supply chain shifts, reshoring by Taiwanese companies and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) received about NT$147 billion (US$4.71 billion) in subsidies from the US, Japanese, German and Chinese governments over the past two years for its global expansion. Financial data compiled by the world’s largest contract chipmaker showed the company secured NT$4.77 billion in subsidies from the governments in the third quarter, bringing the total for the first three quarters of the year to about NT$71.9 billion. Along with the NT$75.16 billion in financial aid TSMC received last year, the chipmaker obtained NT$147 billion in subsidies in almost two years, the data showed. The subsidies received by its subsidiaries —
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) Chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) and the company’s former chairman, Mark Liu (劉德音), both received the Robert N. Noyce Award -- the semiconductor industry’s highest honor -- in San Jose, California, on Thursday (local time). Speaking at the award event, Liu, who retired last year, expressed gratitude to his wife, his dissertation advisor at the University of California, Berkeley, his supervisors at AT&T Bell Laboratories -- where he worked on optical fiber communication systems before joining TSMC, TSMC partners, and industry colleagues. Liu said that working alongside TSMC
RSS