Cashless conundrum

LESS cash changes hands these days at even hawker centres, HDB coffee shops and factory canteens, with a surge in the number of stall operators deploying QR codes or NETS terminals for e-payments in the last few years.

But once the current waiver of transaction fees ends come Dec 31, 2023, many small merchants may well revert to collecting cash. Amid the big drive to get hawkers and other small merchants to go digital and embrace e-payments, there seems to be a misalignment of incentives in the cashless economy. How can banks and other players in the payments ecosystem help discourage the use of cash? Brunch, in The Business Times Weekend, looks at the cashless conundrum.

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