Singapore extends cross-country payment deal offers to India, China

This follows the recent link-up of Singapore and Thailand’s payment systems.

Singapore is offering cross-country payment deals to India and China, said minister for education Mr Ong Ye Kung at the Singapore Fintech Festival last November 13.

The planned collaboration with regional neighbors follows the agreement to connect Singapore’s PayNow and Thailand’s primary payment system, PromptPay.

“The largest merchant acquirer in Singapore, NETS, will establish a framework to enable cross-border payment linkages with the National Payment Corporation of India or NPCI,” said Kung, adding that the goal is to make anyone who holds a NETS card in Singapore able to make online purchases on any NPCI e-commerce merchant.

Conversely, a RuPay customer can use his card or mobile phone to make transactions at any NETS acceptance point in Singapore.

Singapore’s UOB and DBS have also made similar inter-connection arrangements with UnionPay, the dominant payment card platform in China.

UOB and DBS both issue UnionPay cards which can be used for transactions at all UnionPay terminals in China.

“We are also striving for e-payments interconnectivity not just domestically, but also with our neighbours and regional countries. We have started in a small way with India and China, and will progressively work towards interconnectivity with other countries,” Kung said.