In brief: Nets selected to run unified e-payments for Singapore’s food centers

Singapore electronic payment network Nets has been appointed the master acquirer for an unified e-payment solution for coffee shops, hawker centres, and industrial canteens, Enterprise Singapore said on Wednesday.

The initiative by Enterprise Singapore, the Housing and Development Board, the National Environment Agency, and JTC Corporation will allow customers to use up to 20 payment schemes – such as Ez-Link, Nets FlashPay, and mobile payment applications – to purchase meals at coffee shops, hawker centres, and industrial canteens that operate at the premises of the said government agencies.

Source: The Business Times

The four government-linked agencies are looking to equip 200 kopi tiam, 25 hawker centers, and 20 workplace canteens with the new Nets-operated platform within the next two years.

The rollout will happen in two phases. The first set of 10 payment schemes will go live by the end of this year, including American Express, Cepas, Ez-Link, Liquid Pay, Mastercard, Nets, Nets FlashPay, UnionPay, Visa, and WeChat Pay.

A further 10 – including Active Wallet, Alipay, Bev Eat, Ezi Wallet, GrabPay, iAPPS, Honestbee, Qixiang Technology, Singtel Dash, and Smart Gateway – will become available by August 2019.

The initiative could represent a major step forward for Singapore’s “cashless society” ambitions. Gaming company Razer – also a payments provider – said last week that it’s targeting to have 1 million of its RazerPay e-wallets in use in Singapore by April next year. Razer CEO Tan Min-Liang said the company had decided not to collaborate with other Singaporean firms “as we do not see any third-party consumer e-payment provider that is gaining traction.”