UOB’s PayNow goes live, allowing payments using just mobile number or NRIC

SINGAPORE — United Overseas Bank's (UOB) PayNow goes live on Monday (July 10), with the bank saying the launch will enable its customers to be the first in Singapore to pay and to be paid via the service on their social messaging apps.

PayNow allows people to transfer money through their bank's mobile or Internet banking service to a registered recipient with just their mobile phone number, NRIC or FIN. Besides UOB, Citibank Singapore, DBS Bank/POSB, HSBC, Maybank, OCBC Bank and Standard Chartered Bank will offer the PayNow service from Monday, according to a statement by the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) last month.

UOB's peer-to-peer fund transfers have been made possible with the launch of UOB MyKey - the bank's mobile keyboard for Android smartphones and an extension of its mobile banking app, UOB Mighty. Once UOB MyKey has been set as the default keyboard, it can be used in any social messaging app, such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, to make PayNow payments, the bank said.

Ms Jacquelyn Tan, Head of Personal Financial Services Singapore at UOB, said that seven in 10 Singaporeans today use social messaging apps for a host of purposes. With UOB MyKey, customers can add PayNow transactions to the list of things that they could do on these apps, she added.

With more people shopping on their mobile phones, the bank has also made UOB MyKey compatible with well-known e-commerce mobile apps such as Carousell, a mobile classifieds marketplace for new and secondhand items.

UOB MyKey makes it convenient for the bank's customers to pay for what they want on Carousell or similar e-marketplaces, as they do not need to leave the app to transfer money to the seller. This enables sellers to receive payment almost instantly and buyers to complete their purchases faster, the bank said.