DBS – EZ-LINK partnership brings commuters latest cashless convenience
Issued By: EZ-Link Pte Ltd, DBS Bank Ltd
SINGAPORE, 23 January 2009 – DBS Bank Ltd (DBS) and EZ-Link Pte Ltd announced today an alliance that will enable thousands of commuters the ease of topping up their ez-link cards across a network of over 900 DBS & POSB ATMs, and 560 DBS’subsidiary AXS Stations. The first bank to offer this service for both existing and new CEPAS-compliant ez-link cards, DBS will bring greater convenience to commuters who are DBS or POSB customers. The service will be rolled out in phases, starting with 31 ATMs today.
To date, more than 10 million ez-link cards have been issued to a population of 4.8 million. With this collaboration, commuters who bank with DBS and POSB will now enjoy the convenience of these new channels to top up their ez-link cards. This will significantly increase the existing top-up channels including self-service kiosks and manned counters located mainly within MRT stations and bus interchanges, and also at 7-Eleven convenience stores.
CEPAS, an integrated contactless payment card standard, is the result of a collaboration between the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the payment cards industry. The objective of CEPAS is to allow inter-operability of various multi-purpose stored value card payment schemes. This will result in the convenience of having a single card for making transit, motoring and retail payments.
Mr James Kang, Assistant Chief Executive of IDA said: "IDA is pleased to work with companies like DBS and EZ-Link in adopting CEPAS to help enable the DBS island-wide ATM network to offer top-up service for the new ez-link cards. Consumers and merchants can now look forward to interoperable e-payments for transit, motoring and retail transactions. This is part of the Intelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015) vision of Singapore being an intelligent nation, global city powered by infocomm."
With the increased functionality of this new CEPAS-compliant card, it is important to make it more convenient for users to top up the value in the card. The top-up service will be rolled out at all DBS & POSB ATMs in phases – with 31 ATMs launching this service today – and will be completed by end June this year. In addition, all 113 D-Pay enabled AXS Stations are now available for the top-up of existing ez-link cards, and will accept the new CEPAS-compliant cards at a later stage. The entire network of 560 AXS Stations will be ready for this top-up service when they are all enabled with D-Pay before the end of the year. For now, customers need only to look out for the ez-link card logo to know whether the top-up service is available at each ATM and AXS Station .
Holders of the new CEPAS-compliant concession cards issued by LTA will also be able to tap on the DBS and POSB ATM network to top-up their cards at a later date. Details will be announced by LTA.
Said Mr Rajan Raju, Managing Director and Head of DBS Consumer Banking Group : "Providing this ez-link card top-up service is part of DBS’ continuous effort to enhance the convenience we extend to customers through our network of branches and ATMs. We have also enhanced the services offered via the cashless payment platform – besides this top-up service, we launched MotorPay for motorists, enabling them to bill ERP charges to their credit cards.
"Now, with ez-link cards equipped for making motoring and retail payments as well, we foresee the need for greater ease to top up the cards, which is why we have partnered EZ-Link to launch this service."
Said Mr Nicholas Lee, Executive Director of EZ-Link: "The ez-link card has, for a long time, been ubiquitous in Singapore , and its popularity will continue to increase as more merchants see the benefit of accepting the ez-link card as a form of payment. In our expansion of services outside of transit, we have recently added a new segment of users such as SMRT taxi passengers, and will continue to add more uses for the ez-link card. In preparation for the new ez-link card being utilised in the next generation IUs for ERP and Electronic Payment Systems, it is equally important to make top-ups as convenient as possible. Our tie-up with DBS is a natural choice. The extensive network of ATMs and AXS Stations provides EZ-Link customers access to over 1,400 additional top-up points located along major bus routes, shopping centres, office buildings and deep within the heartlands – areas that may not have an existing ez-link card top-up point."