The first quarter of 2019 looms a massive launch of innovative payment schemes across industries in Singapore and around the globe.
Unified Payment Schemes
Enterprise Singapore, together with the Housing and Development Board (HDB), National Environment Agency (NEA) and JTC Corporation appointed NETS to unify an e-payment solution among coffee shops, hawker centers, and industrial canteens, which will be readily available for customers by August 2019. The initiative will provide merchant discount rates or MDR of 0.5% for monthly payment transactions, NETS to waive the terminal rental fee while the Singapore government to provide funding support for three years.
Partnership For Growth
A strategic partnership is happening between the two giant O2O platforms in Southeast Asia, Grab and Fave, as merchants from GrabFood and GrabPay in Malaysia will be on-boarded by Fave’s merchant sales team, thus further accelerate food delivery and mobile wallet services in these countries. Such a partnership will allow Fave merchants to benefit from Grab’s ASEAN-wide customer base of more than 110 million app downloads.
Payment via Biometrics
The new payment cards do not require the signature of the cardholder at the back of the card anymore, but a better way of confirming a customer’s identity is on its way – a biometric card. Though still running a trial stage, big card companies Visa and Mastercard are positive that biometric cards have greater certainty of genuine cardholder identity during transactions and will increase revenue from reduced false declines or forgotten PIN transactions.
Pay-as-you-go (in the car)
Yes, you read it right. Consumers will be able to process payments from their internet-connected cars. Visa Ready is will provide secure payment experiences for IOTs, like paying your gasoline load from the touch screen of your car, eliminating the hassle of getting out of your car and lining up to a pos in a convenience store to swipe.
Merchant Conferences
A series of conferences, exhibitions, and shows of payments industries worldwide were indexed by Payments Cards and Mobile: GSMA Mobile 360 MENA on November 26-27 in Dubai, MPE 2019 (Merchant Payment Ecosystems) on February 19-21 and Money 20/20 Asia on March 19-21 in Berlin. Watch out though for the one to happen in Singapore on April 9-11, Sea Asia 2019 (7th Edition) at Marina Bay Sands.
The global convergence of payment schemes in the merchant industry will align several key value propositions: easy verification, payment assurance, and quick authorisation, which would enhance customer experience and streamline business processes.
