Identity and Payment

IMDA and our partners continue to work together to provide consumers with new and innovative e-payment solutions. Singapore will continue to invest in payments innovation, while at the same time ensure seamless interoperability among various payment platforms and minimise market fragmentation.

SS 518 : 2014 CEPAS Specification for contactless e-purse application (Amendment No. 1)

The publication of CEPAS standard is a significant milestone for micro-payments in Singapore. It is the result of a collaboration spearheaded by IMDA, working closely with the Land Transport Authority and the industry, to develop a cashless nation-wide e-payment platform. CEPAS was gazetted as Singapore Standard SS 518 by former SPRING Singapore (now known as Enterprise Singapore) in January 2006, and has since been in used in Singapore, including for public transport cashless payment.

• Benefits
  Today, the Singapore market has three widely used Multi-Purpose Stored Value Card (MPSVC) infrastructures: NETS FlashPay card, ez-link card and concession card. The CEPAS standard provides an interoperable platform that all MPSVC issuers will eventually migrate to. 

Therefore, the launch of CEPAS is a significant step closer towards giving consumers the convenience of having a single card for making transit, motoring and retail payments instead of having multiple cards for different purposes. When fully adopted, consumers will be able to use one card seamlessly and safely in various payment scenarios.

Beyond just convenience to consumers, merchants and public service providers will be able to deploy a single reader for their transaction processing, as opposed to having multiple readers. CEPAS will also level the playing field allowing more card issuers such as banks and financial institutions to participate in this micro-payment space. Hence, CEPAS results in a "win-win-win" for consumers, merchants, as well as card issuers.

The Singapore data standards can be purchased from the Singapore Standards eShop.