Today Apple is officially launching Apple Pay in Singapore with the help of Visa and MasterCard, and five major banks. In total, this makes Singapore the sixth country to support Apple Pay after the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia and China.
Apple Pay vice-president Jennifer Bailey told The Straits Times: “Now, almost everyone can leave their wallets at home. Apple Pay will be a natural extension of what users have been doing at payment counters” […]
Citibank, HSBC, ANZ and Maybank still do not work with Apple Pay [but] Ms Bailey said Apple is working to bring more banks on board.
Unlike in the United States, Singapore is a fairly developed country in terms of support for contactless payments. The country accepts contactless payments in 300,000 locations, and about one-third of all debit/credit card transactions are made through contactless cards.
The five major banks are POSB, DBS Bank, OCBC Bank, United Overseas Bank (UOB) and Standard Chartered Bank, which equate to 80% of all card transactions in Singapore.
However, Apple Pay transactions are being limited to SG$100 ($72) unless you’re onboard with UOB who has lifted the transaction limit.
