TAIWAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Robin Chang, Sarah Wu and Eddie Hsiung, Lee & Li
laborate with peer-to-peer lending operators, such as fund custodian services, cash flow ser - vices, credit review and rating services, extend - ing facilities to customers (peer-to-bank model), advertising and marketing activities, and credit document custody services. Additionally, the FSC expressed its stance in related press releases that platform opera - tors involved in matching peer-to-peer lending should not be regulated by the FSC at this time. Nevertheless, the FSC issued guidelines for peer-to-peer lending platform operators in Octo - ber 2023 (the “P2P Guidelines” ). Key aspects of those P2P Guidelines include the prohibi - tion of regulated activities (eg, deposit taking, issuing of securities), implementation of a risk control mechanism (covering aspects such as real-name basis for lenders and borrowers, fund flow control, criteria for reviewing loan applica - tions, and loan amount limits) and the inclusion of consumer protection measures. Reports indicate that the Ministry of the Inte - rior grant the approval for the creation of a P2P lending association in January 2025. According to the association’s preparatory office, members of the association will be required to follow the guidelines established by the FSC, with the core business activities encompassing P2P online lending and claims transfer. Electronic Payment (or E-Payment) In 2015, Taiwan introduced the Electronic Pay - ment Institutions Act (the “E-Payment Act” ) to regulate the online payment sector. Subse - quently, in December 2020, the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan’s congress, implemented an amendment to the E-Payment Act, which officially came into effect on 1 July 2021. The modified E-Payment Act outlines the business scope for e-payment
institutions, covering both “core businesses” and ancillary and derivative businesses. The core businesses of an e-payment institu - tion include (i) collecting and making payments for real transactions as an agent, (ii) accepting deposits of funds as stored-value funds, (iii) small-amount domestic and cross-border remit - tance services and (iv) foreign exchange services relating to the core businesses. The ancillary and derivative businesses of an e-payment institution include (a) assisting the contracted merchants with integration and transmission of acquiring and payment information, (b) sharing terminal equipment at the contracted merchants, (c) assisting the information exchange between the users and the contracted merchants, (d) provid - ing an electronic Uniform Invoice system and its value-added services, (e) taking custody of the paid price of vouchers/tickets of goods/services, and assisting in the issuance, sales, validation and related services for vouchers/tickets, (f) pro - viding services for integration of bonus points and offsetting/settling payments for real trans - actions with bonus points, (g) providing value- storing blocks in electronic stored-value cards or application programs for use by others, and (h) providing any planning, instalment, maintenance or consultancy services for the information sys - tem and facilities in relation to the above seven ancillary and derivative businesses of e-payment institutions. The amended E-Payment Act also permits qualified non-e-payment institutions to apply to become a cross-border small-amount remit - tance service provider exclusively for foreign workers in Taiwan. In Taiwan, for core business (i) above (collecting and making payments for real transactions as an agent), the FSC’s prior approval or licence
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