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Singapore gears towards a cashless society in 2018

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 be seen what the future holds for Singapore as a cashless society. Who will emerge as major players and whether the market will accept all of these new initiatives are still uncertainties.

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