Cash is still king in a corner of S'pore's Central Business District

Many looking to buy and sell hard currency still go to The Arcade in the heart of the city

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In the heart of Singapore, a financial hub where billions of dollars zip around the world over computer screens in nanoseconds, there is a crowded building where cash still reigns.

Six days a week, hundreds of people line up at The Arcade, a narrow, three-storey plaza abutting Raffles Place, to buy and sell hard currency at one of around 30 money-changer stalls. All manner of notes can be had in minutes: Singapore dollars for British pounds? Coming right up. Indonesian rupiah for Vietnamese dong? Icelandic krona? Maldivian rufiyaa? No problem. Some 150 currencies are available.

"Cash will remain forever," said Mr Abdul Haleem, 65, a veteran of the industry whose kiosk sits at the entrance to The Arcade. The towering offices of global banking giants JPMorgan Chase & Co and Bank of China are just steps away.

The number of licensed money changers in Singapore dropped during the Covid-19 pandemic when many people were unable to travel and retail shops struggled to pay rent. But there are close to 250 physical stalls still operating, and new ones continue to spring up across Singapore. That is even though multi-currency payment apps such as YouTrip, Wise and Revolut have grown in popularity.

To understand how so many money changers can survive in the digital age, you need to know a bit about Singapore's place in the world. Though it is now among the richest countries—where financial titans from UBS Group to BlackRock manage more than US$4 trillion (S$5.1 trillion) and billionaires including Mr James Dyson, Mr Ray Dalio and Mr Sergey Brin have set up family offices—the nation remains a shipping and transit hub at its core.