Single mobile wallet launched for Singaporeans

Pay Citibank, DBS, EZ-Link, M1, SingTel and StarHub bills through NFC-enabled phones.

"At service launch, consumers can use their NFC-enabled mobile phones to tap and pay at over 30,000 retail points such as convenience stores, fast food outlets, retailers and taxis already equipped with contactless POS terminals. In the near future, consumers can also aggregate an array of retail or F&B merchant loyalty cards and discount coupons, all on a single mobile phone platform," said the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), which supported the implementation of the interoperable NFC infrastructure.

"Comprising consortium partners Citibank, DBS, EZ-Link, and all three mobile operators in Singapore - M1, SingTel, StarHub - the multi-bank and multi-telco partnership will launch nation-wide NFC services through a secure, unified and comprehensive third party infrastructure managed by Gemalto. The consortium will be rolling out three credit, pre-paid and stored-value payment services through NFC-enabled mobile phones in the coming weeks, with respective partners announcing the launch details of their specific services including how consumers can apply for and make use of these NFC services," said IDA.

"Designed for consumer convenience and confidence, the interoperable Near Field Communication (NFC) infrastructure allows consumers to aggregate multiple payment services from different banks and payment product issuers into a single mobile wallet, giving them easy control of which payment product to use for a specific purchase," it added.

For businesses, this means an opportunity to offer secured NFC services to all mobile subscribers in Singapore "in a timely manner and without the need for dedicated infrastructure or deep technical know-how," IDA said.

A number of NFC handset models from Samsung and Sony have been certified for use with the suite of services to be launched. More NFC handsets will be offered by the mobile operators in the coming months.

Also, IDA and the consortium members are working with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to assess NFC mobile payment readiness for transit in early 2013. As part of the preparation, a public trial will be conducted by EZ-Link in end 2012, in partnership with public transport operators.