Cashless but confusing: Can S'pore fix its digital payments system?

QR code complications are the tip of the iceberg. Instead of tinkering with legacy systems, a bold transformation is needed.

- Daniel Rabetti

Visit a hawker centre, and you see stalls with many different QR codes displayed. It’s a boon for someone who’s not carrying cash - but the questions arise: Which code to scan? And which payment app to use?

Scan a Nets QR code with your Google Pay app — and it won't work. Try a SGQR (Singapore Quick Response) code, and you'll be asked which wallet to pay from. In practice, most people open their bank or wallet app first, log in, choose an account, then scan — oddly cumbersome in one of the world’s most digital economies.

Add to that the offerings of private players — GrabPay, PayNow-linked wallets, ShopBack, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay — plus buy-now-pay-later schemes, and it is clear the average Singaporean consumer faces multiple payment choices, but not always true convenience.

Cashless payments in Singapore are plentiful, but sometimes painfully confusing. How did we end up in this situation?

IS NETS HOLDING US BACK?

Nets, launched in 1985, pioneered cashless payments with its debit network and later stored-value cards and QR codes. PayNow followed in 2017, enabling instant transfers between banks via mobile numbers or NRICs.

Around the same time, fintech wallets such as GrabPay, Singtel Dash, Apple Pay and Google Pay arrived — each with its own app and QR system. Together, these innovations pushed Singapore ahead of most economies in adopting digital payments, turning even small transactions at hawker centres and neighbourhood shops into quick, cashless experiences.

Yet as the ecosystem expanded, it also became fragmented: too many layers, too little consistency.

As technology advanced, Nets’ older infrastructure began to show its limits. Its QR operates mostly in a closed network, with different technical standards and settlement processes from newer systems like PayNow or major wallet providers.