Electronic-payment services provider Network for Electronic Transfers (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., known as NETS, has launched a mobile-payment option for its cashless-payment service iNETS, according to a company statement. The service will enable consumers in Singapore to pay bills, make purchases and book tickets using their mobile phones.
To use the service, consumers first must download the application to their phones. “It’s a free service,” according to the statement. ”It will basically replicate all the payment services that iNETS kiosks provide in Singapore.”
Consumers may use the service for various payments, including for utility, broadband and telecom bills; tickets to the cinema; and travel bookings, a NETS spokesperson tells PaymentsSource, noting payments are settled electronically by “virtual check” using account and bank-routing information from a personal check. “NETS will process that virtual check with the customer’s bank, and the bank will then approve or reject the transaction depending on available funds in the customer’s account,” she says. “If the transaction is successful, the bank will debit the transaction amount from the customer’s account … When NETS is informed that the transaction is successful, NETS will then update the merchant and deposit the appropriate funds into the merchant’s bank account.”
NETS eventually hopes to extend its iNETS service to include ATMs and cable television set-top boxes, according to the statement, which did not explain how that process would work.
Such companies as telecommunication-services providers SingTel and StarHub, cinema company Cathay Cineplexes and utility-services provider SP Services are using the iNETS service, according to the iNETS Web site. To use the service, consumers must have an account with either OCBC Bank, DBS Bank or United Overseas Bank Ltd. Users must send a text message to a toll free number from their mobile phone to activate the service and link the account to the device.
