A unified Quick Response (QR) code called SGQR was launched on Monday, 17 September, to replace more than 19,000 QR codes in use around Singapore.
During the launch, Minister of Education and board member of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Ong Ye Kung, also announced a new move for e-payments.
Fast and Secure Transfer (FAST), an interbank funds transfer system, will now be open to non-bank fintech players.
This means that customers will be able to transfer funds to and from any e-wallets, such as GrabPay.
“In the past, two persons must be using the same e-wallet in order to send money to one another. In future, they can send money across different types of e-wallets, so long as they are all connected to FAST,” Mr Ong said.
Grab, Razer, Transferwise, Liquid Group, and MatchMove are among the non-bank players that have signed up.
A Direct FAST industry working group, which will include the MAS, banks and non-bank players, is being formed to develop the business and technical requirements for non-banks to connect to FAST.
It will also be seeking expressions of interest to build an aggregator, that will aggregate technical requirements across all players and result in lower costs.
MAS will issue a full set of protection guidelines for e-payments by FAST at the end of September.
Featured Image Credit: Local News Singapore