Macau’s de facto central bank says there are now 101 licensed financial institutions in the city, an increase of 14 from 2019.
In an update on the city’s financial situation on Thursday, the Monetary Authority of Macau said it had optimised both the city’s hardware and software to create more favourable conditions for the development of modern finance.
Several mobile payment tools are now available for use in Hong Kong, mainland China and a number of overseas regions such as Japan and Europe, the authority pointed out.
From January to June this year, some 170 million transactions were recorded, with a total value of MOP14.48 billion (US$1.8 billion).
These figures represent an increase of 16 per cent and 3 per cent respectively over the same period last year.
In addition, local businesses can accept payments via e-wallet services from mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.
In terms of the northbound travel scheme for cars, the authority said it was currently in close communication with its mainland counterparts to expand the scope of cross-border insurance services.
Since December 2022, when such services between Guangdong and Macau became available on the market, eight Macau-registered companies have been approved as service providers for around 30,000 vehicles registered in Macau.
