DBS to Expand E-Wallet Functionalities

To mark the e-wallet’s fifth anniversary, DBS announced new functionalities and merchant deals and said it hopes to grow its user base.

BS Bank wants to grow its PayLah e-wallet user base from 1.6 million users currently to 3.5 million users by 2023, and will roll out new functionalities and improve the user experience, the bank said in a statement on Wednesday.

From next year, the bank will integrate its rewards app, as well as debit and credit cards payments to the PayLah platform, expand payment touchpoints across the region, and increase ecosystem partnerships, the statement said, highlighting strategic platform partnerships with merchants like KFC, SISTIC and AXS.

«In 2020, we’ll be building on the three Ps – Payments, Partners and Platform – as part of a longer-term strategic roadmap. By linking DBS/POSB debit and credit cards and integrating the DBS Lifestyle rewards app into DBS PayLah!, our customers will be able to earn and redeem rewards instantly on a single platform simply and seamlessly, regardless of their mode of payment,» Anthony Seow, DBS head of Payments & Platforms, Consumer Banking Group (Singapore), said.

Introduced in 2014, PayLah allows users to make instant peer-to-peer fund transfers, purchase travel insurance, movie tickets, pay bills and transport expenses and pay for their purchases at more than 80,000 NETS QR, SGQR and PayNow QR-enabled merchants. The app was the first in Singapore to allow users to send and receive funds using QR codes.

According to DBS, its 1.6 million e-wallet users made S$1.5 billion ($1.09 billion) in transactions from August 2018 to September 2019.