SINGAPORE - DBS has reached out to nearly 3000 cash-based merchants in Singapore within less than a month of the launch of its cashless payments drive called Snap, the bank said in a release on Tuesday.
The Smart Nation Ambassador Programme or Snap was introduced on May 5, and was aimed to encourage small, cash-based merchants like hawker stalls, wet market vendors and neighbourhood stores to adopt DBS PayLah! QR codes as a payment method.
Some 400 merchants are fully onboard and more are in the process of enablement, mainly from mature estates like Toa Payoh, Ang Mo Kio, Clementi and Bedok, the bank release stated.
So far, 3,000 QR code transactions have been processed via DBS PayLah! since the launch of its QR code function, it added.
"We are delighted with the traction gained by SNAP and its game-changing potential to convert cash-based merchants across the island," said Jeremy Soo, head of DBS's Consumer Banking Group (Singapore). "The higher ubiquity in cashless payment acceptance will in turn encourage consumers from making the transition to cashless payments."
In conjunction with the Snap initiative, the bank will also partner ComfortDelGro Taxi to implement QR code payment in its fleet of 16,300 taxis by third quarter of 2017.
Altogether, the bank aims to have more than 60,000 QR code payment acceptance points available to customers by the end of the year.
"We set up Snap as an outreach programme so we can demonstrate to businesses how going cashless can be low-cost, easy and raise business productivity, taking us one step closer to our vision of a Smart Nation," Mr Soo said.
