Southeast Asia’s largest bank DBS is leading the way in driving cashless payments within Singapore with the introduction of the “Smart Nation Ambassador Programme” (SNAP). The programme will see DBS recruiting up to 1,000 ambassadors that will fan out across the island to encourage small, cash-based merchants to adopt DBS PayLah! QR codes as a payment method.
This was announced during the DBS Paylah! X *SCAPE Palooza event – Southeast Asia’s first QR code payment-led bazaar which features some 100 youth vendors setting up shop at *SCAPE from 5 to 7 May. All vendors at the event will be able to accept payment for purchases via DBS PayLah!’s QR code payment function. Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, Grace Fu, officiated at the launch of the event.
DBS’ introduction of the SNAP initiative is one of many cashless payment initiatives the bank is driving as it takes the lead in boosting the adoption of cashless payments within the nation. The bank will recruit up to 1,000 cashless payment advocates to educate small businesses – primarily hawker stalls, wet market vendors and neighbourhood stores – on the benefits of going cashless and encourage them to adopt the QR code payment method. In conjunction with the SNAP initiative, the bank will also partner ComfortDelGro Taxi to implement QR code payment in its fleet of 16,300 taxis by 3Q17. Altogether, the bank hopes to have more than 30,000 QR code payment acceptance points available to customers by the end of the year.
DBS’ decision to focus on small businesses with SNAP is driven by the fact that small businesses here still overwhelmingly prefer the use of cash, despite a concerted national drive encouraging businesses to go cashless.
“One of the obstacles to widespread cashless payment adoption we’ve identified is that there are still various myths circulating around cashless payments – that high costs are involved in setting up the infrastructure to process payments; it is unsafe; it is complicated to use for both merchant & consumers, etc. We set up SNAP as an outreach programme so we can help debunk these myths and demonstrate to businesses how going cashless can be low-cost, easy and raise business productivity, taking us one step closer to our vision of a Smart Nation.”
--- Jeremy Soo, Head of Consumer Banking Group (Singapore), DBS Bank ---
DBS PayLah!, is the first in Singapore to give users – including non DBS/POSB customers – the ability to generate their own QR code to receive funds as well as pay via QR codes. Cashless payment using DBS PayLah!’s QR codes comes with many benefits for both merchants and consumers compared to cash. Barriers to entry are very low: Both consumers & merchants only need a Singapore bank account to send or receive funds via DBS PayLah!’s QR codes – at no cost
