Singapore Payments Market Size & Share Analysis - Growth Trends and Forecast (2026 - 2031)

Singapore Payments Market Trends and Insights

E-Commerce Boom and Cross-Border Retail Spend

Visa-free entry restoration in 2024, PayNow-UPI linkage in February 2025, and previous tie-ups with PromptPay and DuitNow compress settlement to seconds, shaving 40-60 basis points off foreign-exchange spreads.^{[1]Monetary Authority of Singapore, “PayNow and FAST Payment Services,” MAS.gov.sg} Chinese tourists increasingly favor Alipay+ and WeChat Pay at Orchard Road and Changi outlets, reflecting Beijing’s QR-code push over card schemes. E-commerce majors such as Shopee and Lazada route Singapore-dollar proceeds via SGQR, letting overseas sellers bypass local bank accounts, which intensifies competition in fashion, electronics, and beauty.

Government-Led Digital Voucher and SGQR Initiatives

The RedeemSG scheme disbursed SGD 300 (USD 222) digital vouchers to citizens in 2024, compelling 164,000 PayNow-enabled merchants to accept SGQR payments.^{[2]Infocomm Media Development Authority, “Hawkers Go Digital Programme,” IMDA.gov.sg} Hawkers Go Digital waived the 0.5% merchant discount rate through December 2025, removing cost objections for small food vendors. SGQR reached 27 public hospitals and polyclinics in May 2025, cutting outpatient queue times by 30%.^{[3]SingHealth, “SGQR Rollout to Public Healthcare Facilities,” SingHealth.com.sg} Healthcare’s high-ticket, repeat transactions now reinforce habitual wallet use that spills into retail and entertainment.

Near-Real-Time PayNow and FAST Rails Scaling to SMEs

PayNow registrations topped 5 million by end-2024, with cumulative value above SGD 50 billion (USD 37 billion). The Inland Revenue Authority’s November 2025 InvoiceNow mandate embeds PayNow numbers in Peppol invoices, shrinking accounts-receivable cycles from 30 days to under 48 hours. Freelancers and gig workers now generate QR codes at zero marginal cost, while SMEs gain automated reconciliation that disadvantages card settlements lacking machine-readable data.

Super-App Ecosystems Bundling Payments and Services

Grab’s 43.9 million monthly users generated USD 253 million in financial-services revenue in 2024, underpinned by USD 1.2 billion in deposits and a USD 536 million loan book. GrabPay’s 35.3% wallet share and loyalty program lock users into ride-hailing, delivery, and commerce. The November 2025 pact with StraitsX pilots stablecoin payouts that could sidestep correspondent fees, though regulatory clarity on reserves is pending.

Rising E-Commerce Fraud and Social-Engineering Scams

Scam losses hit SGD 1.01 billion (USD 750 million) in 2024, a 53% jump year-on-year. Real-time irrevocability speeds fund dispersal across jurisdictions. Banks responded with Money Lock sub-accounts that impose 12-hour withdrawal cooling-off, while the Monetary Authority’s shared-liability proposal would reimburse compliant victims up to SGD 100,000 (USD 74,000). PSPs must now invest in behavioral analytics and device fingerprinting, raising onboarding costs.

Merchant MDR Cap Pressures PSP Profitability

The Hawkers Go Digital subsidy erased a 0.5% MDR through December 2025, forcing acquirers to absorb interchange and network fees without offsetting revenue. Expectations of zero-cost acceptance may linger, making fee reinstatement politically sensitive. Processors seek margin in working-capital loans and inventory financing but need credit-risk capabilities many lack. International entrants such as Stripe and Adyen face local super-apps that can cross-subsidize acceptance from profits in ride-hailing and banking, producing a cost dynamic hard to match.

Segment Analysis

By Mode of Payment: Real-Time Rails Reshape Channel Economics

Credit cards retained a 34.72% slice of point-of-sale value in 2025, underscoring entrenched terminal networks and rewards propositions. Conversely, online account-to-account transfers are forecast to grow at 10.62% CAGR, the fastest pace across channels, reflecting consumer preference for instant, low-fee settlement. Digital wallets captured 39% of e-commerce value in 2024, down from 47% a year earlier as card issuers countered with enhanced cashback and installment options. Debit cards remain relevant for spend-control users, yet growth lags wallets that bundle loyalty and one-click checkout. Cash-on-delivery persists for luxury goods but continues to shrink. 

Apple’s Tap to Pay on iPhone debuted in December 2025, letting merchants accept contactless payments with only a phone, which could accelerate small-merchant card and wallet penetration. Legacy stored-value cards such as NETS FlashPay survive in transport niches but face gradual displacement as mobile wallets integrate NFC and QR formats. These shifts illustrate how the Singapore payments market recalibrates economic models as real-time rails cannibalize card interchange in digital commerce, while physical retail remains anchored to cards until hardware costs fall.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase

By End-User Industry: Healthcare Digitization Outpaces Retail

Retail accounted for 45.72% of transaction value in 2025, driven by high-frequency supermarket and e-commerce spend. Healthcare, however, is projected to post a 10.73% CAGR through 2031, the swiftest among industries, after SGQR reached 27 public hospitals and polyclinics in May 2025. The Singapore payments market size attributable to healthcare is therefore on a steeper growth curve than legacy retail as aging demographics push recurring medical outlays. 

Digital acceptance now spans telemedicine and pharmacy chains, where PayNow numbers embed directly into bills, cutting reconciliation overhead. Entertainment and hospitality receive a lift from tourism rebound, with Alipay+ and WeChat Pay acceptance at Sentosa, Marina Bay Sands, and Changi Airport capturing Chinese visitor spend. Education, transport, and government services are integrating digital channels but remain smaller contributors. The InvoiceNow mandate compels large businesses to embed PayNow IDs in invoices, shortening receivables cycles and reinforcing account-to-account uptake.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase

Geography Analysis

The compact city-state concentrates 5.9 million digitally connected residents, letting regulators pivot the entire Singapore payments market with policy strokes. The regulatory sandbox born in 2016 nurtured fintech pilots that matured into PayNow and FAST, which now act as ASEAN templates. Cross-border ties to India’s UPI, Thailand’s PromptPay, and Malaysia’s DuitNow remove correspondent banks, lowering migrant-worker remittance costs and simplifying merchant settlement. 

The June 2025 creation of Singapore Payments Network unified oversight of NETS, SGQR, and real-time schemes, tackling wallet fragmentation that frustrated tourists. Project Orchid’s November 2025 BLOOM trial tokenized wholesale deposits for instantaneous cross-border B2B settlement, hinting at liquidity savings of 20-30%. 

While retail CBDC remains distant, wholesale insights shape future architecture. The Payment Services Act licenses all providers and aligns AML, CTF, and cybersecurity rules with FATF norms, while the shared-liability scam framework shifts risk onto institutions, prompting heavier investment in fraud controls. Regional peers observe Singapore’s model when crafting their own regulatory blueprints, cementing the city-state’s influence on Southeast Asian payment standards.