I thought it would helpful to share this with rest of the forumosans.
Basically you can now send money online (to anywhere in the world) via Western Union Online (Taiwan version), without having to set a foot in the bank.
The recipient can receive cash or have funds directly deposited into a bank account.
Sign-up took 5 minutes, and my account was approved in a couple of days. Today, I tested it by sending $200 to a bank account. I received a notification within 5 minutes that the amount was received.
P.S. I was sending it to my own new digital bank account in Pakistan
I applied as a citizen, so your experience may be different. But I am positive I saw the option to sign up with an ARC number.
The exchange rate is not the best but still beats wasting 2 hours in the the bank, each time you have to send money to a new account (which is rare, but still).
Since they were able to overcome the regulatory issues, I hope more modern international financial providers will consider to operate in Taiwan. There should be more competition in that space.
It’s a pity. I was certain that I saw ARC mentioned, so I went back and looked, and I was right. It’s mentioned in the terms and agreement on this page :
I don’t know if this means they plan to allow ARC holders in the future, or if that’s something they were supposed to do.
In any case, it sucks. My wife and many of her Filipino friends could have benefited from this.
Seems Taiwan’s discrimination of financial services based on identity shall continue.
By the way, does anyone know if blue collar workers are allowed to use Line Pay ? I am going to ask my wife’s friends to see if they can. I bet they can’t.
I recall when my wife tried to make an account (and she’s on a spouse ARC) and it took her weeks, she was repeatedly emailed and asked to provide one thing or another.
