On June 11 the EasyCard Corp. and President Chain Store Corp. announced an alliance for the joint issuance of the icash-EasyCard, which promises to become a highly popular e-wallet for small daily purchases in Taiwan much as the Octopus Card is in Hong Kong.

The new card will combine the functions of the EasyCard and President`s icash card, and will be usable at 8,000 retail outlets operated by President Chain Store-4,800 7-Eleven stores plus Starbucks coffee shops and drugstores-as well as well as on the Taipei MRT system, city buses, parking lots, libraries, and the Taipei Zoo. It will also be accepted at the FamilyMart and Hi-Life convenience-store chains.

There are already 16 million EasyCards in circulation, and they are used 3 million times a day. Icash cardholders number 7.4 million. The integration of the two cards will greatly expand the potential e-wallet customer base for President Chain Store and will help the EasyCard penetrate markets outside Greater Taipei, especially in central and southern Taiwan.

The icash-EasyCard will be able to store value up to NT$10,000 and is expected to be in circulation by the end of the year, after the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) gives its nod of approval.

EasyCard Corp. chairman Lien Sheng-wen stated that his company would try to further expand the use of its card by signing up such operations as Domino`s Pizza and the Miramar entertainment complex. The issuer wants to boost the number of contracted stores to over 10,000 by the end of the year; as Lien said, "Our goal is to surpass Octopus of Hong Kong."

The icash-EasyCard will be the first fruit of a new law governing the issuance of electronic certificates, which the Legislative Yuan enacted in January this year. The law allows non-financial institutions with NT$300 million or more in capital to issue stored-value cards, thereby ending the e-wallet monopoly by financial institutions.

Other local companies are also gearing up to enter the e-wallet market, notably the Far Eastern Group, which already handles the Happy Go card and electronic toll collection (ETC) system.

The FSC recently published a draft of security guidelines for electronic certificates, under which stored-value cards with weak security, such as the EasyCard, will be limited to a maximum value of NT$1,000 per transaction while those with stronger security, such as bank-issued e-wallets, will not be subject to that ceiling.

(by Philip Liu)