Local companies owned by fewer than three individuals can apply for digital savings accounts and online loans, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday.
Previously, only sole proprietorships — companies owned by a single individual — could apply for digital savings accounts and loans online, as their shareholding structure is simple and banks can easily conduct know-your-customer reviews.
The number of sole proprietorships last year totaled 808,840, accounting for 52 percent of all local small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, Banking Bureau Chief Secretary Phil Tong (童政彰) told a videoconference, citing Ministry of Economic Affairs data.
To open a digital savings account, a company can verify its owners’ identities to a bank by using Citizen Digital Certificates and videoconferencing software, Tong said.
Yesterday, the commission also raised the fund transfer limit on the third category of digital savings accounts, the most popular of three types, Tong said.
The third category allows single transfers of up to NT$10,000 and up to NT$30,000 per day, but those limits can be raised to NT$50,000 and NT$100,000 respectively if the account holder agrees to have their identity verified via videoconferencing by the bank that manages the account, Tong said, adding that the third category’s higher transfer limits would be the same as for the second category.
The number of people with digital savings accounts totaled 9.43 million at the end of September, up 63 percent from a year earlier, commission data showed.
The spike resulted from 1.8 million people opening the third category of accounts, taking their total to 4.03 million, while the number of those with the first category of accounts rose by 707,000 to 2.26 million and the number of those with the second category of accounts rose by 1.16 million to 3.13 million, data showed.
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