EDITORIAL: Electronic payments still an outlier
The number of electronic payment users in Taiwan surpassed 10 million in August last year, and reached 11.4 million at the end of November an increase of about 75 percent from a year earlier. The sharp increase reflects e-payment service providers’ aggressive promotion of non-cash payment methods, and shows that more people are using contactless payment amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Financial Supervisory Commission has said.
Non-cash payment methods comprise credit and debit cards, electronic stored-value cards, electronic payments and mobile payments. While non-cash payment is becoming more popular, its penetration rate last year missed the government’s target of 52 percent, a goal it set in 2015 when the Act Governing Electronic Payment Institutions (電子支付機構管理條例) took effect aiming to double the rate in five years.