FOMO Pay selected to join national SGQR taskforce to develop Singapore’s payment industry

Less than two weeks after PM Lee Hsien Loong, in his National Day Rally speech, urged Singaporeans to embrace mobile payments, a payments council has been set up to look into ways to advance the development of cashless payments in Singapore. The payments council was established by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (‘MAS’) and a taskforce called SGQR was appointed to spearhead the initiative.

While a plethora of e-payment methods is currently available for Singapore consumers, including WeChat Pay, Alipay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and many others, a key finding made by the payments council was that these payment methods are not interoperable. This means that a retailer could be inundated by a large number of different payment methods, thus resulting in inefficiency and higher costs. As a result of this, the MAS noted that a common QR code could better facilitate payments across these different platforms, which would make payment transactions ‘simple, swift, seamless and safe for everyone’.

The recent introduction of a peer-to-peer funds transfer service, called PayNow, was the first step towards establishing an infrastructure that supported interoperable e-payments. The service enabled consumers to pay and receive money using mobile numbers, regardless of the bank they used, and without requiring senders to know the recipient's bank and account number to transfer funds.

The SGQR taskforce includes other key players in the payments industry including major banks (DBS, UOB, OCBC and UnionPay), government agencies (HDB, NEA and Spring Singapore) as well as payment service providers such as FOMO Pay. By the end of this year, the taskforce aims to introduce standardised SGQR specifications to accept both domestic and international payment schemes. Apart from that, it will also consider the governance structure and implementation strategy for QR codes.

Mr Yeo Hiang Meng, president of the Federation of Merchants’ Association, has also pointed out that the drive behind the adoption of a common QR code for mobile payments would be facilitated by ‘intensified marketing efforts to encourage businesses and consumers to adopt mobile payments at heartland shops and centres’. Given the significant challenges relating to adoption that lie ahead, it remains to be seen how the taskforce can successfully resolve these challenges.

With our extensive experience in helping local partners integrate WeChat Pay and Alipay into their payment systems, we at FOMO Pay are confident of helping the taskforce achieve the ultimate goal of fully co-opting mobile payments into the Singapore payment industry. Please feel free to contact us if you have any comments or suggestions on how Singapore can transition into a cashless society.

To know more, you may read this articles:

1. Creative Destruction in Singapore

‍2. Singapore to develop common QR code to drive e-payments

‍3. MAS’ Payments Council Taskforce to develop common QR code for Singapore

‍4. MAS and IMDA to lead industry taskforce for developing a common QR code for Singapore

‍5. Payments Council to spearhead development of common QR Code for Singapore

‍FOMO Pay

‍FOMO Pay is an authorized partner of WeChat Pay, Alipay, UnionPay, Baidu Wallet & BestPay in Southeast Asia, and was selected as one of the Top 100 Asian Companies by e27, Top 100 Startups by Red Herring Asia, and Top 8 by DBS’ FinTech Accelerator Program, Top Fintech Startups in Singapore by Fintech Asia. FOMO Pay provides a one-stop solution for local merchants by facilitating payment collection from China market, including Chinese tourists. This comprises of online payment and in-store payment modes. FOMO Pay’s business solution serves clients from a wide range of industries, including the telecom, publishing, tourism and hospitality, F&B, education and retail industries.

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Photo credit: MAS