LINE Pay announced Tuesday that its electronic wallet LINE Pay Money will be renamed “iPASS Money” from Wednesday to differentiate it from the company’s eponymous third-party payment service.

Despite the name change, LINE Pay, a part of the LINE instant messaging app, said that services and payment procedures for its joint endeavor with Taiwan’s iPASS Corp., would remain unchanged.

LINE Pay added that consumers would be able to continue bundling their financial payment instruments such as credit cards to the LINE Pay third-party payment service or use the iPASS Money electronics wallet.

The electronic wallet service is provided by iPASS Corp. and issues iPASS cards originally used in the metro system in Kaohsiung.

According to LINE Pay, it has worked with iPASS Corp. for four years and although LINE Pay sold their almost 30 percent stake in iPASS Corp. in early November, their partnership would remain the same, and users’ rights will be not affected.

Since LINE Pay rolled out its services in Taiwan in 2015, the number of users has surpassed 10 million as of November, while the number of merchants allowing purchases to be made using LINE Pay has topped 340,000.

In response, iPASS Corp. Chairman Lee Huai-jen (???) said the name change was expected to strengthen the brand identity of the service.

Echoing LINE Pay’s statement, Lee emphasized cooperation with LINE Pay would not change, while the version of the app previously used by LINE Pay Money would be rebranded as iPASS Money by the end of December.

iPASS Corp. said the number of customers who had signed up for iPASS’s e-payment services topped 4.3 million as of the end of October, making it the second-largest e-payment system in Taiwan.

The accumulated value of money added to iPASS Money accounts has hit a new high of more than NT$75 billion, according to iPASS Corp.

In addition, iPASS Corp. said that the number of iPASS cards issued has totaled more than 28 million.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel