Singapore’s hawkers to get same-day settlement for Nets cashless payments

Singaporean payments platform Nets has launched same-day settlement for the city-state’s food hawkers, allowing them to receive their sales proceeds in their bank account on the same business day.

Maxwell Food Center, Singapore / Photo credit: chriskay

For all cashless payments made on its platform before 5 pm each day – apart from those made with physical stored value cards – Nets will credit hawkers’ DBS, OCBC, or UOB bank accounts by 11 pm the same day.

Nets transactions made after 5 pm will be credited to accounts by 9 am the following business day.

It’s hoped that the ability to receive proceeds on the same day – giving them faster access to their funds and potentially improving cash flow – will encourage more hawker stalls to go cashless.

Last September, Nets was appointed “master acquirer” by government-affiliated agencies Enterprise Singapore, the Housing and Development Board, the National Environment Agency, and JTC Corporation to provide a unified digital payments system for Singapore’s hawker centers, food courts, and workplace canteens.

The project will see select locations offering up to 20 different digital payment options, including Alipay, American Express, Ez-Link, GrabPay, Mastercard, UnionPay, Visa, and WeChat Pay, among others.

Nets has also partnered with gaming company Razer to enable Razer Pay transactions at nearly 40,000 Nets point-of-sale terminals. This followed a spat between the two companies over their respective proposals for a unified e-payments system in Singapore, with Razer later indicating it would adopt a unilateral approach before entering the tie-up with Nets.