SINGAPORE - Singapore start-up Liquid Group has opened the QR (Quick Response) payments corridor between Singapore and Taiwan with its partnership with E.SUN Bank.
This means consumers travelling between the two markets can now make cashless payments for their overseas purchases using their preferred domestic mobile payment apps, at participating merchants.
Real-time notifications on payment statuses and the availability of online transaction histories also provide an additional layer of security for every transaction, Liquid Group said.
Taipei-headquartered E.SUN Bank offers digital banking services. It has a vast network of merchants including convenience stores and Taiwan's popular night markets favoured by tourists, which traditionally only accepted cash payments.
Liquid Group will also work with E.SUN Bank to provide value-added services to help its partners deliver innovative services to their customers.
For instance, with the integrated payments and marketing infrastructure, merchants in Singapore and Taiwan can launch multiple marketing campaigns with participating payment apps, without the need for additional cashier training or verification during checkout. This will allow customers of Liquid Group's partners and of E.SUN Bank to access promotions and deals offered by merchants.
Taiwan is the third market activated for interoperability trials across Liquid Group's cross-border QR payment network, after Hong Kong and Indonesia earlier this year.
Liquid Group had partnered JETCO and CIMB Niaga to open up the corridors for QR payments across Singapore-Hong Kong and Singapore-Indonesia respectively.
In September, the start-up announced it had expanded its QR payment acceptance partnerships to include financial institutions in seven new markets in Asia.
They are Taiwan, China, South Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia - on top of its existing markets of Singapore, Hong Kong and Indonesia.
Liquid Group chief executive Jeremy Tan said last month that the start-up plans to conduct interoperability trials in phases with six new markets - with Taiwan as the first - in Q4 this year, followed by the remaining markets next year.
"We look forward to making the interoperability of the QR payment apps on our network multilateral, in support of growing intra-regional travel (in Asia)," Mr Tan said on Thursday.
"This would mean that travellers across the 10 markets in our network could make payment using their domestic apps in any of these markets," he added.
