ShopeePay Taiwan Co (蝦皮支付) would not be granted a license to launch its electronic payment service if it cannot obtain the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ approval to increase its capital by Friday next week, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said on Thursday.
ShopeePay Taiwan operates as a third-party payment service provider helping its affiliate, Shopee Taiwan Co (樂購蝦皮), manage fund flows.
Amid rapidly growing sales at the e-commerce site, the average daily amount of money managed by ShopeePay surpassed NT$3 billion (US$107.9 million) in 2019, exceeding the NT$1 billion legal limit for third-party service providers, requiring it to transform into an e-payment company and obtain a new license.
Photo courtesy of Momo.com Inc
The firm last year filed an application for the transformation, with which the commission agreed in principle on two conditions:
First, ShopeePay must raise its paid-in capital from NT$5 million to NT$500 million, the amount required from e-payment companies. Second, it must apply for a new operating license within the following six months, with only a one-time delay of three months allowed, which it has already used.
However, the company had as of Thursday yet to obtain the ministry’s permission to inject new capital of NT$450 million, ministry data showed.
“We cannot allow the company to delay [its application for the new license] for another three months, as the regulations stipulate that companies may only postpone their applications once,” Banking Bureau Deputy Director-General Huang Kuang-hsi (黃光熙) told a videoconference on Thursday.
The commission respects the ministry’s decision regarding whether to approve the firm’s capital injection request, as the ministry’s task is to investigate foreign companies’ shareholding structure to examine if their Chinese capital exceeds the legal limit, it said.
If ShopeePay cannot obtain approval to increase its capital by Friday next week, it would not be able to apply for a license and the commission could fine it up to NT$100 million if it continues to manage more than NT$1 billion daily as a third-party payment service provider, the commission said.
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