The value of non-cash transactions last year rose 9.24 percent to NT$5.44 trillion (US$195.36 billion) from 2020 as Taiwanese grew more comfortable with electronic payments amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said on Thursday.
However, the number of electronic transactions last year shrank 9.5 percent to 4.73 billion from a year earlier as people stayed home during a level 3 COVID-19 alert from May to July, the commission said.
For the whole of last year, ridership on MRT metro systems — with most tickets purchased via non-cash payments — throughout Taiwan slumped 30 percent annually, dragging the overall number of such payments, Banking Bureau Deputy Director-General Lin Chih-chi (林志吉) told a media briefing.
Despite the fall in the number of transactions, the rise in the total worth of non-cash deals — payments using credit and debit cards, ATMs and mobile payment tools — suggests that the method gained popularity, in line with a low-contact economy, Lin said.
The commission in March last year unveiled a three-year plan to expand the value of annual non-cash deals to NT$6 trillion next year and the number to half of all transactions, a goal that requires a 15 percent and 8 percent advance respectively from last year.
The goal appears untenable given last year’s data, the commission said, adding that COVID-19 outbreaks and response measures were a major factor.
For instance, MRT ridership — the largest single source of electronic payments — dwindled to 400,000 per day in May last year, down from 2 million per day a month earlier, Lin said.
In the second quarter last year, the value and total of overall non-cash transaction declined and the situation improved only slightly in the following quarter, when credit card and electronic payments fell by NT$8.5 billion from a year earlier, he said.
However, online and mobile money transfers rose significantly, indicating increased willingness among people to shop and order food via the Internet as Taiwan emerged from the virus alert, Lin said.
Things improved further after October, when the government began its Quintuple Stimulus Voucher program, he said.
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