Singapore Rolls Out New e-GIRO Service to Shorten Processing Time to Minutes
by Fintech News Singapore November 8, 2021The Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies, Heng Swee Keat announced the launch of e-GIRO, reducing processing time to minutes during his opening speech at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2021 today.
GIRO is a direct debit mechanism that allows an individual to set up a standing instruction for a billing organisation to make deductions from one’s bank account.
The current application process is manual and takes on average three weeks to process. It may take up to six weeks if further clarifications are needed.
The applications for GIRO are needed to set up payments for bank loans, income tax, mobile phone bills, season parking, and school fees.
With this move, participating banks and billing organisations have come together to digitalise the process to significantly shorten processing times and improve user experience.
So far, 8 participating banks and 13 billing organisations will offer eGIRO as a collection option.
The participating banks are DBS, OCBC, UOB, Bank of China, HSBC, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Maybank and Standard Chartered Bank.
The launch of eGIRO by the Association of Banks in Singapore is part of the Smart Nation Initiative which aims to upgrade Singapore’s broader digital economy infrastructure.
Heng said that on average, there are around 1 million GIRO applications per year as almost every resident will need to fill one up at some point.
Heng Swee Keat
Heng Swee Keat, Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies said,
“I encourage more organisations here to be part of eGIRO.
I also hope to see more companies working together, building on our strong foundations and digital backbone, to improve the lives of our residents and people in the region.”
Featured image credit: Unsplash
