Visa Taiwan Co (台灣威士卡) will focus on developing business-to-business (B2B) payment, cross-border payment, and collaborations with local start-ups and fintech firms in the next three years, general manager Michelle Jao (趙麗芳) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
Visa Taiwan on Saturday formed a partnership with GoShare, Gogoro Inc’s (睿能創意) electric scooter sharing service, and plans to work with more fintech firms so its cards could be accepted at more platforms, Jao said.
Visa has benefited from its collaboration with about 20 fintech companies in the Asia-Pacific region in the past few years, with new credit card accounts increasing by 1 billion and its partner merchants rising by 65 million, Jao said.
While the company has cooperated with large-scale Chinese fintech firms such as Alipay.com Co (支付寶), Visa Taiwan would seek more local start-ups with great potential, as they would likely develop a global ecosystem, Jao said.
Visa Taiwan would set up its own fintech accelerator to nurture start-ups that could introduce new solutions, especially those focusing on cross-border remittance, cybersecurity, identity authentication, customer loyalty and B2B payments, Jao said.
The company is focusing on B2B payment and cross-border remittance as Taiwan is an export-oriented economy, she said, adding that with the nation’s exports and imports totaling more than US$610 billion a year, business opportunities would be huge if some companies were to adopt Visa’s payment solutions.
The company would also work with the nation’s three virtual banks, which are expected to begin operating by the end of the year, she said.
Visa Taiwan is negotiating with the Financial Supervisory Commission and the Bankers Association to launch its service — Visa B2B Connect, a non-card-based payment network that enables seamless bank-to-bank cross-border business transactions, Jao said.
The streamlined cross-border payment service has been launched in about 10 companies in the Asia-Pacific region, she added.
“As the innovative service is based on blockchain technology, we need to communicate with the regulator and the banks more, but overall, they are supportive and expect the technology to offer more convenience,” Jao said.
The COVID-19 pandemic has sped up digital payment adoption in Taiwan, with online payments growing 16 percent year-on-year, she added.
Visa would expand its network and apply its capabilities across all payment flows, becoming a single point of connection to help consumers, businesses and governments to move money safely and efficiently, she said.
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