DBS and OCBC tie up with tech giant Google
Singapore
DBS and OCBC Bank are tying up with tech giant Google.
Both Singapore banks are due to launch Google Pay services with OCBC's PayNow service and DBS's PayLah! by early 2020.
OCBC Bank customers will be the first in Singapore to be able to link their bank accounts on Google Pay to make peer-to-peer funds transfers via PayNow, in addition to provisioning credit cards on the app to make online and in-store payments. The service, currently in beta-testing phase, will be available in open-beta in January 2020.
Users of Google Pay can also earn rewards that will go directly into the user's bank account, said Caesar Sengupta, vice-president of payments and next billion users initiatives, Google, in a press statement.
"In today's digital world, building ecosystems of partnerships and going beyond traditional banking products is critical," said Ching Wei Hong, chief operating officer, OCBC Bank.
"This is a bold move which I believe will have great impact and bring significant scale to PayNow by expanding payment journeys for consumers."
DBS's collaboration with Google includes the integration of PayLah!'s peer-to-peer and peer-to-merchant transaction services.
The integration will allow DBS PayLah! customers to send and receive funds, and pay some 80,000 merchants in Singapore via Google Pay using a single-click sign-up.
"This collaboration demonstrates our commitment towards building wholly seamless, intuitive services for our customers," said DBS Bank chief strategy officer Han Kwee Juan in a press statement.
"We are delighted to partner with DBS in our mission to make mobile payments simple, helpful and secure," said Google's Mr Sengupta.
"Through this collaboration, we hope to make that a day-to-day reality for Singaporeans."
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong urged Singaporeans to go bigger on e-payments in a National Day Rally speech in 2017, the same year PayNow was launched in Singapore.
Recent figures from The Association of Banks in Singapore showed that 28 million PayNow transactions worth S$4.6 billion took place in the first half of 2019.
In September 2019, DBS announced that it would more than double DBS PayLah!'s existing user base of 1.6 million to 3.5 million by 2023.
Standard Chartered separately told BT on Tuesday that it has tied up with Google for Google Pay as well, and will launch the service early next year for clients in Singapore.
Google Pay in Singapore will be enabled across both iOS and Android devices.
Singapore is the second country to launch the enhanced version of Google Pay after it was introduced in India in 2017.
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