The Knowledge to Decide

As Singapore continues its drive to promote cashlessness, automated tray return systems might soon become a regular sight at hawker centers. Customers will be asked to make cash deposits which are refundable when they return their trays. Would customers be willing to accept digital refunds? Japnit Singh, Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Spire Research and Consulting, shared his viewpoint, published in Today Online’s news portal. Automated tray return systems could be rolled out across 25 hawker centers. Patrons going to hawker centers such as the ones in Marsiling Mall and Bukit Merah will have to shell out cash to make deposits of SGD0.50 and SG1 respectively for each tray they take. These deposits would be refunded upon the return of the tray. In a separate development, Ez-Link cardholders can also use their cards to pay for drinks and food at 1,000 stalls in over 30 hawker centers from April. An integrated cashless hawker center experience may entice customers to

As a new year dawns, Singapore continues to focus on becoming a cashless society. Despite several unsuccessful attempts in the past, many nationwide initiatives are set to launch soon. Will this be the year of change? Japnit Singh, Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Spire Research and Consulting shared his insights, published on Today Online’s news portal. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will launch common Quick Response (QR) codes next year. Moreover, the largest payment network in Singapore – Nets – will implement a QR code system in the middle of 2018 across all of its 100,000 acceptance points. However, Japnit opined that security concerns still loom. Previously, lack of interoperability confused consumers, whereas transaction and terminal fees prevented small businesses from offering credit card or Nets payments. This time around, fraudulent QR codes with malicious software to steal data and access customer bank accounts are causing trouble. It remains to