MAS to grant non-bank financial institutions access to FAST, PayNow

Beginning February 2021, NFI e-wallet users will be able to make real-time transfers to banks.

Eligible non-bank financial institutions (NFIs) will be granted direct access to Singapore’s banking system’s retail payments infrastructure—the Fast and Secure Transfers (FAS) and PayNow—beginning February 2021, says the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

NFIs that are licenced as major payment institutions under the Payment Services Act will be allowed to connect directly to FAST and PayNow. This will enable users of NFI e-wallets to make real-time funds transfers between bank accounts and e-wallets as well as across different e-wallets.

Currently, most e-wallets require the use of debit or credit cards to top-up funds, and funds transfers between e-wallets are not possible.

This also enables businesses that partner any of the 23 FAST or 9 PayNow banks—or e-wallets that have traditionally been closed-loop ecosystems—to receive real-time payments from other users of e-wallets and other mobile banking apps joining FAST or PayNow.

NFIs will be able to connect directly through a new Application Programming Interface (API) payment gateway developed by the Direct FAST Working Group (DFWG), with guidance from the Singapore Clearing House Association (SCHA) and the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) that governs FAST and PayNow, respectively.

The API payment gateway is better geared to the technology architecture of banks and NFIs and can also be used by other banks and NFIs in future, according to MAS.

“Direct access by NFIs to FAST and PayNow closes the last-mile gap in Singapore’s e-payments journey. Consumers who may not have ready access to debit or credit cards to fund their e-wallets will now have the option to do so directly through their bank accounts,” said Ravi Menon, managing director of MAS. “Adoption of e-payments will become even more simple for individuals and businesses.”

He added that through this move, the regulator’s vision to enable complete real-time payments interoperability will become a reality.

You're the reader we write for. You're also the person our partners want to reach.

If that sentence describes you — a founder, a C-suite, someone whose attention companies pay good money for — then you already understand why SBR works. We've spent twenty years earning the trust of readers exactly like you. Which is exactly what makes this an interesting place for your company to show up, too.

The ways it can show up are broader than most people assume — thought leadership articles, sponsored content, industry summits across Southeast Asia, regional awards programmes, podcasts, and media placements in print and digital. The right fit depends on what you're trying to do, which is why we'd rather start with a conversation than send a rate card.

If your company has something this audience should know about, we'd like to hear what you're working on.

No rate cards until we understand the brief. It's a better use of everyone's time.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia

Top News

30 One-Sentence Stories From People Who Have Built Better Habits

None of these stories are mine. They were sent to me by readers of Atomic Habits. My hope is that these examples will illustrate how real people are putting the book into practice. They will show you what people are actually doing to build good habits and break bad ones. And hopefully, they will spark some ideas for how you can do the same.

news conversion

SBR 5 Lorem Ipsum News 2 [8 May]

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

SBR 4 Lorem Ipsum [8 May Top Stories]