Shopping in Singapore? | How NETS Let Singapore Shoppers Pay Directly From the Bank Account — Without Carrying Cash

SINGAPORE / SHOPPING CULTURE / NETS AND EFTPOS HISTORY

By The Memory desk · Historical reference · Sources checked 7 October 2026

NETS, short for Network for Electronic Transfers, was set up in 1985 by five Singapore banks: DBS, OCBC, Overseas Union Bank, UOB and the Post Office Savings Bank. Its first job was EFTPOS (electronic funds transfer at point of sale), which let shoppers pay at the till with their ATM card and a PIN, with the money taken straight from their bank account. After a pilot in June 1985, the service went islandwide on 17 January 1986. It was part of a national campaign to make cashless payment, in the campaign’s words, a way of life by 1987.

The NETS history that followed runs from those first PIN pads through the CashCard of 1996, the contactless cards of the 2000s and the QR codes of 2017, to the terminals that now take NETS, Visa and Mastercard on one machine. This guide gives the dates and figures from the National Library, the National Archives and the banks, and flags the places where accounts disagree.

NETS at a glance

Full name	Network for Electronic Transfers (Singapore) Pte Ltd
Founded	1985; EFTPOS pilot in June 1985, islandwide launch on 17 January 1986
Founding banks	DBS, OCBC, Overseas Union Bank, UOB and the Post Office Savings Bank
Owners today	DBS, OCBC and UOB in equal shares (OUB is now part of UOB, and POSB part of DBS)
Known for	PIN debit payment from bank accounts, the CashCard used in ERP in-vehicle units, FlashPay, NETS QR and contactless NETS
Today	More than 130,000 acceptance points in Singapore (2023); about 54,000 unified terminals that also take Visa and Mastercard

1985: a national campaign against cash

NETS was born out of government policy as much as banking. On 14 March 1985 a national campaign to minimise cash transactions was launched at the Singapore Conference Hall. The National Library’s account of it lists the targets. Only 51 per cent of salaried workers were then paid by direct credit to a bank account, and the campaign wanted at least 70 per cent. Bills were to move to GIRO, the interbank direct-debit system the banks had introduced in 1984. The government closed 20 cash collection centres to push people towards it.

Shopping was the third front. In June 1985 the five largest local banks, working together as NETS, ran a pilot of EFTPOS. The National Library records 10,000 participants and 39 retail outlets; another account puts the pilot terminals at 64, spread across government offices, supermarkets, department stores and petrol stations. A report from Singapore in The Christian Science Monitor that month described the ambition: up to 10,000 terminals in shops, supermarkets and petrol stations, with money moving from the customer’s account to the merchant’s almost immediately through a central clearing house.

The idea relied on something Singapore already had. Cash machines had arrived in 1979 and 1980 (DBS’s heritage site credits Standard Chartered with the first in 1979, while UOB dates its first 24-hour ATM to 1980), so many adults already held a bank card with a PIN. EFTPOS let that same card pay for groceries at the counter, without a trip to the cash machine first.

17 January 1986: NETS EFTPOS goes islandwide

The service opened to the public on 17 January 1986. The National Library gives the eligible base as 1.1 million ATM cardholders; a later heritage account puts it at about 1.3 million, with 195 NETS terminals at 84 retail outlets. In either version, the network began in department stores, supermarkets and petrol stations rather than in small shops.

Take-up was gradual rather than sudden. By December 1988, according to the National Library, the five banks had issued 1.8 million ATM cards to about 1.2 million customers. NETS handled 4.5 million transactions between January and November 1988, against 3.6 million in the whole of 1987. Also in 1988 the banks’ ATM networks were linked, a milestone the government later listed alongside EFTPOS in a 1996 speech on electronic payments.

By 1993 spending through NETS had passed S$1 billion, DBS’s heritage site records. By late 1996 the government put EFTPOS at more than 110,000 transactions a day, worth about S$7 million. The habit it built was a particular one: pay from money you already have, confirm with a PIN, and take a printed slip. That made debit feel quite different from credit, a difference our Ledger guide to credit cards in Singapore covers from the other side.

1996 to 2009: CashCard and the stored-value years

For very small payments, such as vending machines and photocopiers, the banks wanted something that needed neither a PIN nor a live link to the bank. The CashCard, formally launched in November 1996, was their answer. The Business Times of 27 November 1996 showed Finance Minister Richard Hu buying a soft drink with one, and reported that the card could be used for purchases of up to S$200 at some 300 outlets. Unlike EFTPOS, it was an offline stored-value card: you topped it up in advance, and the chip itself carried the balance.

The project had taken about five years and involved six local banking groups and POSBank, and the Banking Act had been amended in 1993 so that only licensed banks, with MAS approval, could issue such cards. The CashCard’s most lasting role was on the road, as the card drivers slotted into the in-vehicle unit to pay Electronic Road Pricing charges and car-park fees. How drivers pay under the new system is covered in our guide to ERP 2.0 and the new on-board unit.

In March 2006 NETS picked a supplier for a contactless CashCard built to CEPAS, Singapore’s standard for contactless stored-value cards; the card was then accepted at about 30,000 points across more than 12,500 merchants. NETS FlashPay, another contactless stored-value card, followed in October 2009. For how stored-value and bank cards are used on public transport today, see how to pay for the MRT and buses.

How did NETS move from PIN pads to QR codes and tap-to-pay?

GovTech put NETS’s transaction value at about S$24 billion in 2016, across more than 100,000 acceptance points. But it faced two new competitors at once: international contactless cards, which were spreading fast in supermarkets, and phone wallets with QR codes. It answered both in 2017 and 2018.

NETS QR went after the hawker centre, the last big holdout of cash. In December 2017 The Asian Banker reported that NETS expected to have 30 hawker centres signed up by the end of that year and all 120 within six months, and that it was waiving terminal and transaction fees for hawkers for three years. NETS also became one of the schemes carried on SGQR, the national QR label launched in September 2018. That story, and the 2020 Hawkers Go Digital push, is told in our history of PayNow and SGQR.

Contactless NETS arrived in 2018, letting bank cards tap to pay on the NETS network for small purchases without a PIN. In May 2023 NETS said contactless transactions had grown by strong double digits each year for three years, and it worked with Visa and the local banks so that existing Visa debit cards could also make contactless NETS payments. The no-PIN limit was S$100 in 2023; OCBC told its cardholders that it would rise to S$200 from 16 July 2025.

NETS today: one terminal, many schemes

The terminal itself has changed as much as the card. In March 2023 NETS signed agreements to acquire merchants directly for Mastercard and Visa, so most NETS merchants could add both card schemes without replacing their machines. At the time NETS reported about 54,000 unified point-of-sale terminals and 96,000 QR acceptance points. By May 2023 it was citing more than 130,000 acceptance points across Singapore.

QR has been consolidated too. In November 2024 NETS began rolling out SGQR+ islandwide as the “master acquirer”, so a merchant could take up to 12 payment options through a single provider. In June 2026 MAS and the Association of Banks in Singapore set a target of end-2026 for a pilot that would let PayNow users scan NETS QR codes and the reverse. This is our reading rather than a documented aim, but the direction since 1985 has been consistent: fewer devices at the counter, and fewer reasons for a shopper to carry cash. The cash side of that story is in our history of cash, coins and exact change.

A NETS history timeline

• 1979 to 1980: The first ATMs bring bank cards with PINs to Singapore.
• 1984: The banks introduce interbank GIRO.
• 14 March 1985: The national campaign to minimise cash transactions is launched.
• June 1985: Five banks, as NETS, pilot EFTPOS with 10,000 cardholders.
• 17 January 1986: NETS EFTPOS opens islandwide.
• 1988: 4.5 million NETS transactions in eleven months; bank ATM networks are linked.
• 1993: Spending through NETS passes S$1 billion.
• November 1996: The CashCard stored-value card is launched.
• 2006: NETS moves the CashCard to a contactless CEPAS chip.
• October 2009: NETS FlashPay is launched.
• December 2017: NETS QR starts signing up hawker centres.
• 2018: Contactless NETS tap-to-pay is introduced.
• March 2023: NETS begins acquiring Visa and Mastercard payments on its terminals.
• November 2024: NETS rolls out SGQR+ islandwide.
• 16 July 2025: OCBC raises its contactless NETS limit from S$100 to S$200.

Questions people ask

What does NETS stand for?

Network for Electronic Transfers. The company was formed in 1985 by DBS, OCBC, Overseas Union Bank, UOB and the Post Office Savings Bank, and is now owned by DBS, OCBC and UOB.

When did NETS start in Singapore?

A pilot ran from June 1985, and the EFTPOS service was launched islandwide on 17 January 1986 for the holders of the banks’ ATM cards.

What is EFTPOS?

Electronic funds transfer at point of sale: paying at a shop’s terminal with a bank card and PIN, so the money moves directly from your account to the merchant’s. In Singapore it has always been run by NETS.

Is NETS a debit card or a credit card?

NETS is a debit network: payments come out of money already in your bank account. Many bank cards now carry both NETS and an international scheme such as Visa or Mastercard.

When was the CashCard introduced?

It was formally launched in November 1996 by the local banks as an offline stored-value card, first usable at some 300 outlets for purchases of up to S$200. A contactless version followed in 2006.

Sources and further reading

• National Library Board, Infopedia: The national campaign to minimise cash transactions
• The Christian Science Monitor: Singapore launches two projects in move toward becoming an electronic society (June 1985)
• National Archives of Singapore: Speech at the launch of the CashCard (November 1996)
• NewspaperSG: The Business Times, 27 November 1996
• DBS Heritage: The early tech adopter tales of DBS
• Dollars and Sense: GIRO and NETS, pioneers of cashless payment in Singapore
• Secure Technology Alliance: ASK to supply contactless payment cards for Singapore (March 2006)
• Wikipedia: NETS (company), for the FlashPay and contactless product dates
• GovTech: E-payments, guideposts to a Smart Nation (2018)
• The Asian Banker: Singapore goes more digital through NETS QR code (December 2017)
• The Digital Banker: NETS to acquire merchants for Mastercard and Visa (March 2023)
• The Digital Banker: NETS expands contactless payment options (May 2023)
• OCBC: FAQs on revision to contactless limits on NETS (2025)
• Fintech News Singapore: NETS rolls out SGQR+ islandwide (November 2024)

This is a historical reference, not payment advice: card features, limits and fees change, so check with your bank. Read next: How PayNow and SGQR reached the hawker stall · Credit cards and contactless payment in Singapore · Back to The Memory