Singapore's Race to Cashless Hits Milestone
Take-up for the national e-payment system is growing along with transaction volumes, and more use cases are expected as more consumers and businesses sign up.
The value of transactions on Singapore's PayNow interbank transfer platform has crossed S$1 billion per month for the past three months, the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) said on Friday in a statement.
ABS noted the «growing ubiquity» of PayNow as a mode of transaction among individuals and businesses. Launched in July 2017, the platform started as a platform that allows retail customers of participating banks to send and receive Singapore dollar funds using their mobile or national identity card (NRIC) number.
PayNow has since grown to support utilities bill payments, tuition fee payments and insurance payouts. The introduction of PayNow Corporate in April 2018 has also allowed businesses that have accounts with participating banks to pay and receive funds using the platform.
Significant Growth
«As consumers and businesses grow more accustomed to the real-time payment service, more compelling use cases are likely to develop and spur further growth in usage,» ABS said in the statement.
PayNow is supported by nine banks: Bank of China, Citibank Singapore, DBS Bank/POSB, HSBC, ICBC, Maybank, OCBC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, and United Overseas Bank. As of end-September 2019, 3 million mobile and NRIC numbers were registered with on the platform, along with 120,000 businesses.
