Bank of China and ICBC to offer PayNow

There are now nine banks using the service.

Two banks will join the list of those offering PayNow, namely the Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited, the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) said.

According to an announcement, this will bring the number of banks offering PayNow to nine.

The banks currently offering PayNow are Citibank Singapore Limited, DBS Bank/POSB, HSBC, Maybank, OCBC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, and United Overseas Bank.

PayNow is a free peer-to-peer (P2P) funds transfer service that allows customers of participating banks can send and receive Singapore Dollar funds from one bank to another through FAST using just their mobile number or Singapore NRIC/FIN, almost instantly.

As at 31 March, there have been more than 1.2 million PayNow registrations and over $470m transferred via PayNow.

PayNow is not only expanding through banks, but through businesses as well. Minister Vivian Balakrishnan previously announced that businesses will now be able to use PayNow to transfer their funds to other businesses and receive payment from customers, meaning the platform will now become B2B and B2C as well.

The government is expected to roll out PayNow Corporate this year, which will enable businesses to link their bank accounts to their Unique Entry Numbers (UEN).