Transactions with Visa payWave cards in Taiwan grew by 19% during the third quarter with spending up by 23%, according to Visa’s country office in Taiwan.
The payment network, which announced a loosening of rules for use of contactless cards in Taiwan Monday, said consumers tapped their Visa payWave cards 3.3 million times per month during the third quarter, an increase of 19% from the same period a year earlier. Spending was NT$2.9 billion (US$100.1 million) per month during the quarter, up by 23% on average from 2011, Visa said. As of Sept. 30, Taiwanese financial institutions had 5.6 million credit cards on issue supporting the contactless payWave feature.
Consumers can tap at 13,800 stores equipped with 24,000 contactless point-of-sale terminals in Taiwan that support payWave. Most, if not nearly all, of the same terminals also support contactless cards from other major payment networks, MasterCard PayPass and J/Speedy from Japan-based JCB. But there are believed to be few J/Speedy transactions.
