SINGAPORE - Close to 4,000 Central Provident Fund (CPF) withdrawals totalling some $40 million have been made via mobile payment service PayNow by CPF members aged 55 and above since the service was launched in March, an indication that older Singaporeans are willing to try e-payments.

The CPF Board is the first government agency to adopt PayNow by leveraging OCBC Bank's application programming interface, the bank said in a statement on Monday (July 30).

To withdraw their CPF savings, eligible members can link their Singapore NRIC number to bank accounts from any of the nine PayNow participating banks. They can then log in to My CPF online services using their SingPass details and submit a withdrawal application.

The money will be deposited into their bank accounts within a day, compared with the previous time of five working days via Giro, OCBC said.

Said CPF Board's chief digital services officer Wong Yan Jun: "CPF Board strives to leverage technology to serve our CPF members better. By adopting PayNow as a new additional payment mode, eligible members who are 55 and above can withdraw their CPF savings in an easy and expeditious way."

There has been concern over whether older Singaporeans can adapt smoothly to a cashless and increasingly digital society. Against this backdrop, their willingness to use PayNow as a funds transfer mode for CPF savings is especially encouraging, said OCBC.

Its head of global transaction banking, Melvyn Low, said: "This is the first time that PayNow has been used for on-demand payment by a government agency. Its success bodes well for the imminent roll-out of PayNow Corporate and for Singapore's ambitions of going cheque-free by 2025."

He added: "Over the next three years, we hope to see a 40 per cent drop in corporate cheque payments by our business banking customers."

PayNow will be extended to businesses in August with the launch of PayNow Corporate.