The 4.55 million users of iPass Money — the nation’s second-largest electronic payment service, which was previously called Line Pay Money — found the service more inconvenient to use after iPass Corp (一卡通票證) and Line Pay Taiwan (連加網路商業) separated.
The service was initially a collaboration of the two companies, but it has been solely operated by iPass since Line Pay sold its stake in the service and walked out of the iPass boardroom in November last year, data from the companies showed.
However, iPass, a Kaohsiung-based stored-value card company, does not have an independent payment app for users, so the users still have to use the apps managed by Line Pay and its affiliate, Line Taiwan Ltd (台灣連線), to access iPass Money services.
Photo courtesy of Line Pay Taiwan Ltd
Line Pay on Tuesday renewed its Line Pay payment app, which no longer offers access to iPass Money, and the company said in a statement that the older version of the app would cease to work from May 1.
After that deadline, the 4.55 million users of iPass Money must log into Line Taiwan’s Line messaging app, select the “Wallet” function, click “Line Pay,” and then click “iPass Money” to pay or transfer funds, a process that users said is more inconvenient than when they could gain access through a couple of apps.
Moreover, this sole means of access might disappear next year, as the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) told a videoconference on Tuesday that iPass’ contract with Line Pay is to expire in February next year.
At that point, users of iPass Money would no longer be able to use the Line app to pay or transfer funds, Banking Bureau Chief Secretary Phil Tong (童政彰) said.
However, iPass has told the commission that it would establish its own app, which it plans to launch by the end of this year, Tong said.
Line Pay would manage its own payment service, which is a third-party payment service, Tong added.
A third-party payment service is different from an electronic payment service in that users cannot transfer money to each other or link to users’ bank accounts, the FSC said.
One female user told the Taipei Times that friends had transferred thousands of New Taiwan dollars into her iPass Money account, and she does not know whether she should rush to spend the funds before next year.
Line Pay said that the decision to remove access to iPass Money from its new app was based on considerations of time and resources.
If it had integrated the service into its app, it would have needed to spend more time developing the new app, it said.
Line Pay said that it planned to ask iPass whether it wanted to extend its contract next year, but that discussions had not begun.
The rights of its users would not be affected, iPass said in a statement.
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