Singapore
WITH competition, comes innovation.
That's the dictum Minister Ong Ye Kung hopes will grip the e-payments market when non-banks join the scrum. The Education Minister, who is also board member of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), announced this week that Singapore's interbank payment infrastructure FAST will be extended to non-bank players such as fintech firms and e-payment apps by 2019.
Industry players The Business Times spoke to share Mr Ong's view - that Singapore's cashless transformation will shift into higher gear as banks and non-banks compete for both e-payment transactions and user data.
They said the move would enable a new wave of innovative firms to develop novel...