BC Card Opens QR Infrastructure to Attract Foreign Tourists

BC Card announced on the 31st that it has strengthened its service to allow QR payment methods used in Taiwan to be utilized in Korea, in collaboration with the Financial Information Service Company (FISC) and the Taiwan Bankers Association.

FISC is a company that mediates interbank transactions within Taiwan. It is responsible for building the payment network with BC Card. The Taiwan Bankers Association supports the overseas expansion of Taiwanese financial companies.

In the future, Taiwanese tourists will be able to conveniently make payments at BC Card QR merchant stores using the QR codes they used locally, without the need for separate currency exchange or application downloads.

The two companies plan to continue collaborating by starting with supporting TWQR payment services in Korea through opening the QR payment infrastructure, expanding QR payment merchants (linking with Zero Pay QR merchants), attracting Korean one-month stay travelers, and developing content using both companies' channels.

The number of Taiwanese tourists visiting Korea is increasing. According to the Tourism Knowledge Information System, the proportion of Taiwanese tourists among all foreign visitors to Korea rose significantly from 0.4% in 2021 to 8.8% in 2023.

BC Card plans to expand its QR payment infrastructure to partner with various overseas financial companies so that the rapidly increasing number of foreign visitors from Asia can conveniently use the QR payment services they used locally in Korea without any discomfort.

Cho Suhyun, Head of Global Business Division at BC Card, said, “Through collaboration with FISC, we have created an opportunity to contribute, even slightly, to the government’s goal of attracting 20 million foreign tourists.” He added, “We will continue to expand the QR payment infrastructure so that overseas tourists visiting Korea can stay comfortably regardless of their length of stay, such as one-month stays.”

Meanwhile, BC Card currently provides services allowing payment via TWQR at BC Card QR merchant stores frequently visited by tourists, such as CU, GS25, Shinsegae Duty Free, and Ediya Coffee, and plans to expand to Zero Pay merchants in the future.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.