With all this innovation, why are payments still so fragmented?

DURING the recent Singapore Fintech Festival, we saw a slew of announcements in the payments space - ride-hailing firm GoJek teaming up with DBS Bank to offer payment services; rival firm Grab and United Overseas Bank announced a partnership to allow users to tap on a number of the bank's payment solutions directly on the Grab app. Meanwhile, RazerPay, the mobile wallet solution by gaming company Razer, is pairing up with NETS to provide a similar service.

The competition is hot to create the next "super-app" - a single app that dominates our everyday lives. But is a "super-app" really the most efficient way to tackle our increasingly fragmented payments landscape?

Consider the confusion among customers and merchants who are left wondering what to do. The promotions, the subsidies and the lack of interoperability. Until the dust settles, they fall back on what they know and understand - cash and cards.