Chunghwa Post bank account holders would be able to withdraw funds from automated teller machines (ATMs) using QR codes at selected post offices next year, the postal company said yesterday, adding that in 2021 it plans to begin testing the possibility of allowing people to withdraw funds using facial recognition.
The company plans to make its ATM cards more useful, so that people can use them to pay for groceries, metro fares, taxes and other fees, Chunghwa Post chairman Wu Hong-mo (吳宏謀) said.
Chen Chia-li (陳佳莉), director of the company’s savings and remittance department, said that the company would choose certain post offices to begin testing the use of QR codes for withdrawals next year.
To access the service, customers would have to download the company’s e-Post Office (e動郵局) mobile phone application, in which they could view the QR codes for their accounts, she said.
Chunghwa Post’s ATMs would scan the QR codes, allowing people to withdraw money from their post office accounts, Chen said, adding that it would make things easier for people who forget their ATM cards.
The company plans to have this function available at 680 of its ATMs nationwide by 2021, and would gradually increase the number, she said.
Chunghwa Post would start testing the possibility of allowing people to withdraw funds after the facial recognition system verifies their identities in 2021, Chen said, adding that it is scheduled to introduce the service in 2022.
Chunghwa Post Visa Debit ATM card holders would soon be able to access the MRT Taoyuan Airport Line and the Kaohsiung MRT system with the card, Chen said.
The service should become available some time before the end of the first quarter next year, she added.
The company has about 3.6 million Visa Debit ATM card holders, Chen said.
Asked if Chunghwa Post is interested in forming similar partnership with EasyCard Corp, she said that EasyCard is in the process of securing its electronic payment license, which would allow EasyCard holders to transfer money to other accounts.
“We would wait until the corporation obtains the license before talking about a possible partnership,” Chen said.
Chunghwa Post is also interested in linking accounts to other electronic payment service providers, Chen said.
It has partnerships with JKO Pay (街口支付), Line Pay, iPass, PChome Pay, Gama Pay and O’Pay, Chen said.
Starting tomorrow, people can also pay for items delivered to them through the postal company’s iBOX service (i郵箱) using the Taiwan Pay or e-Post Office applications, Chen said.
From March, people collecting packages can pay using Chunghwa Post’s ATM cards if the item costs less than NT$3,000, she said.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS