Rapyd Teams With OCBC Bank For RTP; DBS Debuts Mobile Service For SMBs

Welcome to The Axis, your late look at payments news from around the world. Coverage includes the tie-up of Rapyd and OCBC Bank for real-time payments for shoppers in Singapore as well as online retailers. India’s PhonePe has hit a milestone on the number of digital transactions on its mobile application, overseas personal remittances reached their lowest level in five months in February in the Phillipines, and DBS debuted a mobile service for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) via Hong Kong’s faster payments system.

FinTech provider Rapyd is teaming up with OCBC Bank to provide Singapore shoppers as well as eCommerce retailers with real-time bank payments, Rapyd said in an announcement. The tie-up taps into Singapore national peer-to-peer funds transfer service PayNow to let clients of the bank use the OCBC Pay Anyone app. OCBC Bank Head of E-Business, Business Transformation and FinTech and Innovation Group Pranav Seth said in the announcement, “The partnership with Rapyd will benefit Singapore consumers and online retailers by expanding payment options for consumers while simultaneously increasing revenue opportunities for businesses.”

In another news, PhonePe says it has hit the 2 billion mark for digital transactions on its mobile application, the Economic Times reported. PhonePe Vice President, Strategy and Business Development Karthik Raghupathy said, according to the outlet, “Our online and offline merchant transactions have grown 5x in the last 6 months. The payment process using PhonePe is convenient, fast and seamless, and our merchant partners are seeing tremendous value in that.” The company is accepted at 3 million merchant outcross through 130 locations for offline payments, which it has target via integrated point of sale (POS) billing terminals and quick-response (QR) codes.

In Philippines payments news, overseas Filipino personal remittances reached their lowest level in five months in February, GMA News Online reported. Data from the country’s central bank indicates that the total of transfers sent via informal channels or via cash clocked in at $2.557 billion compared to $2.745 billion in January. That figure, the outlet reported, also represented the lowest amount since $2.490 billion in September of last year. With the newest numbers, personal remittances year-to-date personal remittances arrived at $5.302 billion compared to $5.182 billion during the comparable period in 2018.

On another note, DBS rolled out a mobile service for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with Hong Kong’s new Faster Payments System (FPS), according to reports.  Clients can scan a quick-response (QR) code from the merchant and pay through their own mobile banking apps in real time. Ten firms have tested the app across different verticals. Jason Bow of soup delivery company Soup BB said per the report that “DBS understands our current business model and offers us with a cashless solution, DBS MAX.” The company said the system eliminates the need for physical payment terminals and makes the reconciliation of payments easier, among other benefits.