Monetary Authority Chief Executive Joseph Yam has called for a review on how Hong Kong's electronic money system should develop, saying has the potential to be the most efficient in the world.

In his Viewpoint column published today on the authority's website, Mr Yam said there are many lessons to be learned from the Octopus system and the failure of add-value transactions through EPS.

Whether there is a need for separation of the management of the platform and the issue of stored-value cards is an important issue to be considered and debated, he said.

Common platform

"The community obviously also wants a card that is reliable and offers adequate protection of their financial interests. They probably do not mind choosing between different stored-value cards, if offered a choice, to suit their own preferences. But they probably would not like, having chosen a card, to be forced to shop at certain locations, or travel only on certain buses, because only they had debiting facilities for that card," Mr Yam said.

"Similarly, providers of goods and services would obviously prefer to install just one card reader rather than several. In other words, there should ideally be just one common platform for a number of stored-value cards, both for the convenience of users and the efficiency of the system."

There is a need for public debate and policy deliberation before these early views can be confirmed, modified or indeed rebutted, and new policy established if necessary, he added.

More competition

One possible development of the system is to introduce competition into the card-issuing part of the business, while allowing the current single and common platform to develop and possibly expand into an essential piece of the infrastructure of the retail payment system.

"I have no pre-conceived idea on the ownership and management of the common platform, provided that there are adequate checks and balances, transparently observed and monitored, to protect the public interest.