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eMoney News

Cashless society developing in Singapore
1 Dec 2009

More point-of-sale terminals that permit the use of CEPAS stored-value cards are being established in Singapore.

Channel News Asia reports that the announcement was made at the recent Infocomm Industry Forum in the country.

The move would suggest that Singapore is increasingly moving towards a cashless society, using these cards to pay for travel and items in some retailers.

Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lui Tuck Yew said that the Infocomm Development Authority and five companies from the industry will be putting millions of Singaporean dollars into the project, bringing the number of terminals to 24,000 by 2011.

Jeremy Tan, Managing Director of PaymentLink, one of the firms involved in the initiative, told the news channel: "There are a lot of inconveniences in using cash and coins."

He also suggested that a lot of people do not recognise this "inconvenience" because they have been using this method of payment for "so many years".

Earlier this year in the UK, eMoney network sQuidcard helped launch the a multi-purse ITSO-enabled smart card in Bolton, Greater Manchester.

The card can be used to pay for travel, low-cash items and council services and marks the advent of a cashless society in the north-west of England, according to sQuidcard Chief Executive Adam Smith.