10 e-payment modes to be available at selected eating places by end-2018

SINGAPORE electronic payment network Nets has been appointed the master acquirer for an unified e-payment solution for coffee shops, hawker centres and industrial canteens, Enterprise Singapore said on Wednesday.

The initiative by Enterprise Singapore, Housing and Development Board, National Environment Agency and JTC Corporation will allow customers to use up to 20 payment schemes - such as EZ-Link, Nets FlashPay and mobile payment applications - to purchase meals at coffee shops, hawker centres and industrial canteens that operate at the premises of the said government agencies.

The agencies target to have the e-payment solution to be adopted across 200 coffee shops, 25 hawker centres and 20 industrial canteens in the next two years.

Enterprise Singapore said that the schemes will be rolled out progressively in two phases, with the first of batch of 10 payment schemes set to go live by end 2018. Customers will be able to choose from the 20 payment schemes through unified touchpoints by August 2019.

Merchants will be given a terminal for card payments and an SGQR code to accept and process transactions from the 20 payment schemes.

Moreover, merchant discount rates (MDR), which usually hover between 2 and 5 per cent for monthly payment transactions will be set at 0.5 per cent, with the Singapore government aiming to bring down the MDR for merchants to zero per cent through funding support over three years. Nets will also waive the terminal rental fee for merchants.

Transactions made through the payment platform will be credited directly into the merchant's bank account within one day after the close of business, for transactions made before 11pm each day. Meanwhile, transactions made through American Express, Mastercard and Visa will be credited within two days after the close of business.

Where applicable, merchants will also be given the option to integrate their e-payment terminals with their point of sales systems "to better measure sales performance and consumer purchase behaviour".

Enterprise Singapore said that more information on the initiative will be released soon.

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