Singapore payment services firm NETS Group today said that it’s signed a partnership with Chinese financial institution UnionPay to make its cashless wallet app NETSPay usable overseas.
NETS started off in 1985 to give consumers the ability to make payments with a local debit card. Like most other payment providers, it went the route of offering several cashless payments options like stored-value cards, contactless options like FlashPay, and now mobile wallet apps like NETSPay, which can be linked to bank cards.
The partnership with UnionPay marks the first time NETS services become available outside of the Southeast Asian city-state.
Consumers will be able to use the NETSPay app to make purchases at over 7.5 million UnionPay QR code merchants and almost 12 million QuickPass contactless acceptance points globally, including in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, and Thailand. Users can also remit money via phone numbers or a QR code.
Read more about digital payments in Asia here.
Takeaways:
— In Singapore, NETS, among others, has beenramping up efforts to get people to go from physical cards to contactless to using e-wallets. “Going cashless” is still an ongoing campaign in Singapore with nearly 60% of merchants now accepting e-payments. This seems to have attracted the interest of various local and foreign corporations, from O2O player Grab to gaming conglomerate Razer.
— The number of Singaporean outbound travellers has been increasing over the years, according to Statista. Singapore households are big spenders in international travel, poised to be the “seventh highest travel spenders” worldwide, according to Web in Travel citing a report. In the past, Singaporean travellers would typically use cash or credit cards to make purchases while abroad.
Editor: Nadine Freischlad