智慧卡型電子錢包與相容性

Smart Cards with Electronic-Purse Applications and Compatibility

近年來，智慧卡型電子錢包已應用於各種產業，成為零售付款系統的新興工具。而電子錢包支付系統相容與否，將是影響使用者規模的關鍵因素。本文考慮交通運輸服務與商店服務這兩種電子錢包應用層面的相容性，研究從事價格競爭的雙佔發卡銀行在哪一種相容之情況下為最有利。我們亦探討消費者剩餘極大與整體社會福利極大的相容情況為何。研究結果發現，當市場達到均衡時，兩家銀行的智慧卡在這兩種應用層面完全相容或僅有商店服務相容時將使銀行的產業利潤達到最大。若政府追求社會福利極大，則最適的政策為強制銀行針對此兩種應用開放完全相容。另一方面，若政府係追求消費者福利極大，則最適的政策為強制銀行在交通運輸服務開放相容。

Recently, smart cards with electronic-purse (e-purse) applications have been a new payment option in multiple industries. In Taiwan, the scale of such smart card usage is still limited. One of the key factors is the incompatibility among the e-purse payment systems. In this paper, we consider two kinds of e-purse applications used in transportation services industries and at authorized merchant stores, respectively. We investigate compatibility in which kind of application between the duopoly issuing banks' e-purse payment systems are the most profitable. We also examine the welfare-maximizing compatibility cases. We show that the equilibrium industry profits of the issuing banks are the highest when the payment systems are completely compatible on both transportation services and on merchant services, or when they are (partially) compatible only on merchant services. The social-welfare optimal policy is to impose complete compatibility on both applications, whereas the consumer-welfare optimal policy is to impose compatibility only on transportation services.