Cashless payments may soon be introduced on a large scale at hawker centres, coffee shops, and other small businesses in the heartlands, with the Government seeking ideas and views from the industry on electronic payment solutions at these places.

Four Government agencies – National Environment Agency (NEA), Housing and Development Board (HDB), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Smart Nation and Digital Government Office (SNDGO) – on Friday (Aug 25) jointly issued a request for information (RFI) on affordable micro-payment solutions within the heartlands.

“With most Singaporeans frequenting hawker centres and HDB shops on a regular basis, the aim is to provide them with an e-payment solution that is not just easy and convenient, but a delight to use,” they said in the joint statement.

“Given the low-value transactions in these places, the solution must be affordable for the merchants, for payments between them and their customers and between them and their suppliers.” Such e-payments solutions should be one that can be adopted by a broad demographic of customers, merchants and suppliers quickly, affordably and safely, they added.

A report commissioned by the MAS found that cash is the most widely used form of payment at cooked food stalls in hawker centres across the island.

Global payments giant Visa and Singapore-based payments firm Liquid Pay said they would be participating in this RFI. Ms Ooi Huey Tyng, Visa’s country manager for Singapore and Brunei, said: “We have been working closely with NEA to look at bringing electronic payments to hawker centres in Singapore, and the Land Transport Authority to enable contactless payments for transit for Visa cardholders.”

In other countries, Visa has launched its mVisa solution, which allows consumers to pay for goods and services by scanning a QR code on a smartphone or entering a merchant number. Visa said it would be working with banks and merchants to bring this solution here.

Meanwhile, Liquid Pay has trialled its QR code payment solution at coffee shops, cafes and hawker centres here.

“Liquid Pay is working with industry stakeholders on the development of a standardized QR code. The call for a standardised QR code, or a standard technology platform that is open and interoperable for the payment industry is the right move in the right direction, as the current mobile payment space is fragmented,” the company said.

In response to queries on whether it would be participating in the RFI, Mr Anthony Seow, Head of Cards & Unsecured Loans at DBS, said the bank had earlier this year deployed ‘ambassadors’ to encourage small, cash-based merchants to adopt its e-payment solution DBS PayLah! using QR codes. These were mainly vendors at hawker centres and wet markets, as well as neighbourhood stores, he said.

“We are heartened that the Government is doubling down on its commitment to ensure the ubiquity of digital payments across Singapore. One of our observations early on was that the lack of ubiquity in digital payment acceptance by merchants does in turn discourage consumers from making the transition to digital payments. This is why we introduced the Smart Nation Ambassador Programme (SNAP) in May this year,” he added.

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by TAN WEIZHEN

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