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| Countries covered: Singapore Financial Card Use Continues To Rise Despite the Threat of Global Recession The property boom of 2007-2008 made many Singaporeans wealthier, despite inflationary pressures such as rising transport and food costs. Singapore’s employment rate remains comparatively healthy, with new graduates and job seekers are finding it easier to land jobs with higher salaries than they would have at the beginning of the 2003-2008 review period. Together with the introduction of new credit and debit cards targeted at consumers with different lifestyles and spending needs, these favourable economic conditions ensured that the adoption of financial cards in Singapore continued to grow strongly in 2008. Banks Target Younger Adults With New ‘lifestyle’ Credit Cards The growing popularity of financial cards in Singapore is leading banks to launch more credit cards catering to younger working adults. These cards tend to feature eye-catching designs and offer a wide range of lifestyle rewards, benefits and privileges that appeal to younger age groups. In 2008, banks continued to launch and aggressively promote these cards through various media platforms. To encourage cashless spending and appeal to untapped consumer groups that did meet the income requirements for standard credit cards, such as students and lower income earners, banks also offered cards with a credit limit of S$500. Motorists in Singapore Can Make Erp Toll Payments Using Ez-link Cards Traditionally, motorists in Singapore could only make electronic road pricing (ERP) toll payments with a Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS) CashCard. This changed in the last quarter of 2008, when EZ-Link Pte Ltd extended the function of its ez-link cards, allowing motorists to use them to pay tolls on various roads across Singapore. Ez-link cards were initially introduced as a means of payment for public transport in Singapore. EZ-Link has something of a competitive advantage over NETS in this regard, in that its ez-link cards have a dual function: they can be used to pay public transport fares as well as ERP toll payments. Banks Issues New Credit and Debit Cards That Also Offer Ez-link Functions Towards the end of the review period, a number of banks in Singapore introduced new debit and credit cards that also incorporated ez-link functions. The trend started when Citibank introduced SMRT debit and credit cards with ez-link functions. Other banks like United Overseas Bank (UOB) and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) soon followed suit. With the majority of Singaporeans using public transport on a regular basis, this strategy gives banks access to a huge target consumer base, while also helping to increase spending on their credit and debit cards. Wallets Going Cashless As financial cards in Singapore continue to incorporate more functions, such as combination of ATM, debit, credit and also for transportation all-in-one, consumers are likely to apply for such cards for convenience of carrying only one card in their wallets. Card issuers are expected to lure new applications with more perks such as discounts, rebates or rewards. Such competition will not limit to credit cards only but also to debit cards as well as prepaid cards. Consumers are most likely to benefit most from these competitions in the forecast period. |
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