Singapore proposes payment system with only an email address

The proposed fintech experiment is a scheme that on the surface offers a number of privacy implications. Using a token as personal as an email address, mobile number of social network ID suggests that the scheme would require an unusual level of government verification of an individual who possesses any of these, and effectively constitutes the co-opting of private identification into the public sector.

Ravi Menon, the organization’s managing director, at the Singapore forum, said they are also exploring an ‘all-in-one’ addressing system, that will enable users to pay someone electronically using the payee’s mobile number, email address, social network account, or other proxies without knowing the payee’s bank account number.

Singapore intends to institute a regulatory sandbox approach to give financial innovators more freedom to experiment with authentication technologies such as blockchain-based ledger. MAS also announced that it is working with the Singapore financial industry on developing a unified Point-Of-Sale (POS) terminal capable of reading all kinds of cards at retail and hospitality establishments.