HKT waives Tap & Go transaction fees for SMBs

HKT Group's SME servicing platform HKT Merchant Services has put in measures to support SMBs ahead of the upcoming round of the consumption vouchers, enabling them to use HKT Merchant Services’ SmartPOS all-in-one payment acceptance device and one-stop FPS Payment Solution without any transaction fee. The company said that to help SMEs capture opportunities through the consumption voucher scheme and reduce operating costs, HKT Merchant Services is charging SMEs, social enterprises and NGOs no transaction fees for Tap & Go and the Faster Payment System (FPS) via HKT Merchant Services’ SmartPOS all-in-one payment acceptance device and one-stop FPS Payment Solution, enhancing their operational efficiency and competitiveness.

"HKT Merchant Services hopes to support merchants, especially SMEs, through this promotional campaign. With our comprehensive digital payment solutions, we help SMEs tap into the vast ePayment market, cope with business under the new normal and capture opportunities for economic recovery," said Heidi Chan, chief operating officer of HKT Financial Service.

HKT Merchant Services said the SmartPOS one-stop payment acceptance device supports all mainstream payment methods, including all stored value facilities participating in the Consumption Voucher Scheme. Thus, merchants are able to accept all consumption voucher payment options with a single device, which helps enhance cost efficiency.

According to the latest figures from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the number of registrations and average daily volume of HK dollar transactions on FPS last year surged by 40% and 90% year-on-year respectively. FPS usage also continues to expand gradually from P2P transactions to merchant payments (P2M). The company added that the onboarding of the FPS Payment Solution service can be completed entirely online in about 10 minutes, while services can be activated in as short as seven business days.

“HKT is committed to promoting digital transformation and the development of digital payment. In addition to offering the public a  convenient shopping experience, we wish to provide our full support to SMEs coping with the business model under the new normal. We continue to support the government in launching the latest round of the consumption voucher scheme and to provide fee reductions for merchants and special offers for the public, in a bid to join everyone in tackling the present adversities," said Susanna Hui, group managing director of HKT.

On 7 March, Hong Kong's financial secretary Paul Chan announced that the new round of of the voucher will be made available in April.

"Our plan is to do it as early as possible but it really depends on the circumstances. From our standpoint, whatever we can do, we will do our best. To enable the entire over 6.3 million citizens to receive these vouchers smoothly without any hiccup, I think it is very important for us to do sufficient back-end work, have the system properly tested, and ensure the experience of users will be good," Chan said.

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