Singapore moves to end use of cheques

The latest step will allow business owners and the government to receive payments instantaneously, without having to disclose details such as bank account numbers. This is made possible with the expansion of the PayNow transfer service to include businesses.
PayNow Corporate will start at 8am on August 13, the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) announced last Friday.
Education Minister and Monetary Authority of Singapore board member Ong Ye Kung noted on Friday that more than eight in 10 Singapore consumers have adopted e-payments, while nearly three in five merchants accept e-payments. The value of e-payments has been growing by more than Singapore$10 billion (Bt242 billion) a year.
Meanwhile, ATM cash withdrawals have been going down by more than $300 million (Bt7.3 billion) a year.
In 2015, ATM cash withdrawals were almost 60 per cent of e-payment transaction values. This was down to about 40 per cent by the end of last year.
“Let us aim to bring this down to 20 per cent in 2020,” said Ong, who was speaking at the ABS’ 45th annual dinner.
Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) have been added to the list of banks offering PayNow.
“We don’t need to be literally a cashless society – some people will always find cash useful – but we certainly can transact with a lot less cash, and we won’t need to visit the ATM so often.”
The share of cheques as a proportion of all payments using the Fast (Fast and Secure Transfers) interbank transfer service, Giro and cheques was about 28 per cent last year, down from 37 per cent in 2015. 
“Let us aim to bring that down to 15 per cent in 2020 and become a cheque-free society by 2025. Sweden has done it. We can too,” said Ong.
PayNow, which was launched last year, lets users send payments via their mobile phones without requiring bank account details. It has around 1.4 million registrations, and nearly $900 million has been transferred via the service.