For the last 30 years, Nets has been working towards turning Singapore into a cashless society, and it will continue to do so for the next 30 years and beyond, said its head honcho.
The payment network, whose name stands for the Network for Electronic Transfers Singapore, has several plans up its sleeve this year – its 30th anniversary.
Besides unveiling a virtual CashCard for motorists today, Nets developed a platform that will allow a single card to hold rebate dollars from different merhants, for instance.
Consumers will also be able to top up their cards via an app by Nets, which already tracks transactions, by the end of this year.
In an exclusive interview, Nets chief executive Jeffrey Goh said the firm is working with various food court operators to launch their prepaid cards on the FlashPay platform, like a co-branded Toast Box FlashPay card that was recently launched.
The next step is to combine these various prepaid cards into one, through Nets retailer stored value programme (RSVP), he said.
“Theoretically, one card can support up to 20 merchants and can be used for anything, even for loyalty points.”
He has even thought about working with insurers to offer solutions when a card is lost, and the easy recovery of points or stored-value, for instance. Mr Goh said: “Consumers shouldn’t fear losing their card as everything is captured electronically and insurance can pay for it.”
An app offered by Nets already reads a consumer’s transactions across all FlashPay cards he owns.
Nets is going one step further, to allow consumers to top up cards using near field communication phones by the end of this year, with the service now in the testing stage, he said.
The payment network may also revamp its e-payment portal to be faster and for a better customer experience.
The aim is to turn Singapore into a cashless society, but Nets still has its challenges.
At Bedok Interchange Hawker Centre and Beo Crescent Market and Food Centre near Havelock Road, stalls using Nets terminals have said FlashPay usage by customers was slow.
Mr Goh said: “To change consumer behaviour takes about three to five years, and Nets is prepared to continue to invest in that, just like how paying bills via the AXS machine wasn’t a natural progression.”
He said Nets main goal at its formation in 1985 was to drive cashless retail payments.
“For the last 30 years, we’ve been quite successful; 70 per cent of retailers in shopping centres and 60 per cent of neighbourhood stores accept Nets.
“It’s the last push now to get 90 per cent acceptance across the neighbourhood stores and shopping centres.”
The plan is for every cash transaction to be replaced by Nets, he said.
“My father’s generation used cash, our generation uses cards, and the next will definitely use virtual payments, so Nets is re-looking its strategy as it goes into the e-payments market,” Mr Goh said.
