PX Mart Co (全聯) and Taiwan FamilyMart Co (全家便利商店) yesterday gained Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) approval to provide electronic payment services through subsidiaries, the FSC said yesterday.
PXPay Co Ltd (全支付) and All Win Co Ltd (全盈支付金融科技), which is 67 percent owned by Taiwan FamilyMart, 18 percent owned by E.Sun Commercial Bank (玉山銀行) and 15 percent owned by Pi Mobile Technology Inc (拍付國際), were granted approval to establish the services, the commission said.
The two firms fulfilled the requirements, including at least NT$500 million (US$17.86 million) in paid-in capital, and would be allowed to offer a payment tool, as well as to take deposits from service users and offer fund transfers between them, the commission said.
Photo: Yang Ya-min, Taipei Times
However, licenses for additional services, such as foreign currency accounts and vouchers, would require additional applications, the commission said.
Twenty-eight companies offer e-payment services in Taiwan, with 13 million users as of the end of April, FSC data showed.
The addition of PxPay and All Win would intensify competition in the sector, as their parent companies have a large customer base, the commission said.
PxPay has 7 million members, while 13 million Taiwanese have a FamilyMart membership, it added.
The commission has asked the two companies to define stable and solid marketing and pricing strategies, Banking Bureau Deputy Director-General Huang Kuang-hsi (黃光熙) told a videoconference, adding that curbs are in place to prevent players in the sector from engaging in price wars.
Asked if the two e-payment provider could offer exclusive rewards for customers at their parent companies, Huang said that the FSC would decide on a case-by-case basis whether this would have an adverse effect on market discipline.
In related news, a MasterCard Taiwan (萬事達) survey found that more than 75 percent of respondents used mobile payment tools more often than they did before a surge of COVID-19 cases last month.
Half of the respondents used the tools every day, up 30 percentage points from before the outbreak, the company said.
Forty-five percent said they preferred mobile payment tools as they were safer than cash amid the COVID-19 outbreak, while 70 percent said they were attracted by rewards offered through the platforms and 60 percent said that they wanted to save time, the survey showed.
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