Contactless Payments Gain Ground in Singapore

With more than half of Singaporeans using mobile contactless payments, the city-state is one of the market leaders globally in terms of contactless payments penetration.

Mobile contactless payments use among Singaporeans grew by 12 percent over the past year to 56 percent, with the most popular option being contactless card payments at 84 percent, according to a new study by Visa on consumer payments attitudes in Southeast Asia, conducted among 5,000 consumers in seven regional markets in October 2019.

Reasons for the strong uptake in Singapore include state-of-the-art mobile security and stringent data privacy measures, the survey, published on Thursday, revealed. Supermarkets and quick service restaurants, along with contactless acceptance in new categories like public transport, were also key contributors, Visa said.

Some 75 percent of respondents here said they do not feel their personal information is at risk when making mobile payments, and two in three believe that merchants, banks and third-party companies provide sufficient security to protect their transactions. The study also found that three in five Singapore consumers are willing to share location data with merchants in exchange for discounts, promotions and services.

The use of contactless payments was given a boost in April 2019 with the introduction of contactless credit and debit card payments on public transport.

The outbreak of Covid-19 has also spurred businesses to adopt mobile payments and prompted a rise in contactless payments to reduce the spread of the virus. Earlier this week, the Singapore Government said it was allocating S$500 million to support digital transformation and the adoption of e-payments by businesses. In announcing the package, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said the use of digital payments has «risen sharply,» with more than 50,000 businesses adopting Paynow Corporate since April.