Taiwan-China Remittance Platform to be Set up

Taipei, Sept. 26, 2012 (CENS)--Taiwan and China plans to establish a Chinese-language platform for cross-strait bank remittance to replace the current SWIFT Code, the English-language worldwide bank identifier, to sizably cut cross-strait remittance fee to NT$100 (US$3.33) per transaction from the existing NT$600-900 (US$20-30), according to H. N. Kuei, director general of Banking Bureau under Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), who says most countries adopt the SWIFT system to charge about NT$900 (US$30) per transaction, NT$600 (US$20) of which paid to receiving bank and NT$300 (US$10) to sending bank.

Consumers are allowed a maximum cross-strait daily remittance via one account of 80,000 renminbi (RMB) or about NT$384,000 (US$12,800).

The FSC is also promoting the cross-strait one-card policy, aiming to enable Taiwanese to withdraw cash in China with ATM cards, with the policy expected to become effective at the end of this year.

Taiwanese can use ATM cards to withdrawal in China 2,000 RMB each time but not over 20,000 RMB or about NT$100,000 (US$3,333) per day, and can only buy in China a maximum of NT$2 million (US$66,667) in goods.

Taiwan allowed China-issued UnionPay credit cards in 2009, and allowed cash withdrawal from ATMs with such cards a year later in Taiwan.

As of the end of July this year some NT$54 billion (US$1.8 billion) was swiped on UnionPay credit cards in Taiwan, with cash withdrawal totaling NT$55 billion (US$1.83 billion).