SINGAPORE - All ComfortDelGro taxis have stopped accepting payment with physical credit cards as its payment processing service, Wirecard, will cease operations in November.

This comes after the Wirecard "encountered a major service disruption on Monday", ComfortDelGro said on Friday (Oct 1).

The temporary suspension of payments using physical credit cards such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Diners and JCB is expected to stretch into early next year.

The taxi operator informed its drivers in a circular on Friday that attempts to process credit card transactions on the payment terminal now will result in a "not approved" message displayed on the mobile display terminal.

However, passengers can still pay with the accepted credit cards using the "Pay for Street Hail" feature on the ComfortDelGro Taxi booking app.

In-app credit card payments to book rides or to pay for flag-down rides will not incur admintration fees.

Cabcharge, Nets, Nets QR, Nets Flashpay, Dash, Alipay and UnionPay will still be accepted.

"New cashless payment terminals, which will be able to accept physical credit card payments, will be progressively rolled out across our fleet of taxis in early 2022," said Ms Tammy Tan, ComfortDelGro's group chief branding and communications officer.

Payment gateway service provider Wirecard's scandal-ridden parent company in Germany collapsed into insolvency in June last year.

In September last year, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) ordered Wirecard's local entities to cease its payment services here.

In December, The Straits Times reported that the Singapore entity was seeking a buyer.