Visa Taiwan Co (台灣威士卡) is to focus on providing new cross-border payment solutions, issuing debit cards for young people and collaborating with the cryptocurrency sector to boost its competitiveness, general manager Michelle Jao (趙麗芳) said yesterday.
As parent Visa Inc has launched a business-to-business (B2B) payment solution — Visa B2B Connect — to facilitate quick cross-border payments using blockchain technology, Visa Taiwan has applied with the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) to introduce the service to local businesses, Jao told a media briefing in Taipei.
The service, which the commission is reviewing, is available in more than 100 countries, she said.
Photo: Kao Shih-ching, Taipei Times
The company plans to issue debit cards to young people, such as university students, as they are generally not ready or eligible to use credit cards, Jao said, citing a survey in July showing that nearly 70 percent of people younger than 23 had never tried non-cash payment tools.
“The number was unexpectedly high,” she said.
The issuance of debit cards has risen at a double-digit rate this year, Jao said, adding that hopefully more young people would use Visa’s other payment tools as well.
Meanwhile, Visa has collaborated with more than 50 crypto wallets or trading platforms worldwide to allow people to buy cryptocurrencies with their Visa cards, Jao said.
The value of cryptocurrency-related transactions made with Visa cards surpassed US$1 billion in the first half of this year, she said.
In Taiwan, the company would observe how local exchanges conform to new regulations against money laundering and how robust cryptocurrency transactions are before furthering local collaborations, she said.
A company survey showed that about 74 percent of respondents had heard of cryptocurrencies, but only 8 percent had invested in them, so the room for growth is substantial, she said.
As the central bank plans to develop its own digital currency, Visa Taiwan is studying how it could bridge traditional and digital currencies in its network, Jao said, adding that the company would be ready to go if the central bank launches a digital currency.
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