DBS Launches QR-Based B2B Payments

DBS helps further propel Singapore’s cashless movement by introducing quick response code-based payments for the business-to-business segment.

The bank hopes to boost payment speeds and is piloting the solution first in the F&B industry – a sector with limited penetration with nine out of 10 payments still being made through cash or bank transfers, according to a statement. The bank developed the solution after nearly 20 digital workshops with F&B businesses to identify bottlenecks in the payment process.

In the new solution, which executes payments through its fund transfer service PayNow, users can consolidate multiple invoices per transaction and make full or partial payments for multiple invoices. This is also expected to effectively help improve credit terms due to the instantaneous and flexible nature of the process. The bank will roll out the new payment solution to the broader F&B ecosystem, logistics companies, and traders by the end of 2020.

Aside from the retail segment, SMEs are expected to be a major growth driver for digital players in finance given a large gap between needs and demand.

Many SMEs we speak to want to realize productivity gains by becoming more digital but don’t have the expertise or infrastructure to do so,» said Joyce Tee, group head of SME banking at DBS. «The lender is looking to understand SMEs’ pain points and then lay the foundation for enhanced payments capabilities one sector at a time.

In November last year, Singaporean rival UOB also launched a payment solution aimed to capitalize on the cashless market for businesses. UOB’s Mcollect is a QR-based solution that enables instant payment and reconciliation to improve what it estimates is otherwise, on average, a four-day manual process.