Menon has claimed that “For consumers, the use of cash for daily payments is high,” and that “For businesses, the use of checks is relatively high too.”, dealstreetasia.com reports. Menon said cash in circulation in Singapore is the equivalent of 8.8% of gross domestic product, compared to just over 2% in Sweden.
An average of 12.7 checks were written per person in Singapore in 2014, compared with practically none in Sweden, he added. This costs Singapore about USD 1.5 billion) per year, mostly for storage and processing, which Menon described as a “non-trivial” amount.
Singapore is aiming to be a hub for the financial technology industry in Asia in an attempt to bolster its economy, create jobs and cement its position as a regional banking center. Menon said the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is asking the country’s banks to pass on to their customers the full cost of paper-intensive services, such as the processing of checks, to encourage them to switch to digital payments.
The MAS also wants to see a majority of those transactions made using cellphones, or national ID or other secure numbers, rather than bank account numbers, over the next year, Menon said. Singapore, along with Finland, the US, Sweden and the UK, are the economies that are most ready to use digital payments, based on the high use of mobile phones and banking services, according to a Citigroup Inc. report published in June 2016, the source cites.
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