How PayNow Works – Complete Guide to Singapore Payments

PayNow is Singapore's national instant payment system, launched in July 2017 by the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) under oversight of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Built on top of Singapore's FAST (Fast And Secure Transfers) infrastructure, PayNow allows any two Singapore bank account holders to transfer money in seconds using a simple proxy identifier — no account numbers required. The central innovation of PayNow is its proxy registry: instead of requiring the recipient's bank account number and routing code, the sender simply enters a mobile number, NRIC/FIN, or UEN. The system looks up the linked bank account and routes the payment in real time. PayNow has achieved remarkable adoption — with approximately 4 million registered users in a country of 5.9 million residents. Monthly transaction volumes exceed S$10 billion. The system operates 24/7/365 with zero transaction fees for personal transfers. PayNow QR codes are encoded using the EMV Merchant Presented Mode (MPM) standard with Application Identifier (AID) SG.PAYNOW in EMV tag ID 26. The currency is always Singapore Dollar (SGD, code 702). Two unique features distinguish PayNow QR: the editable amount flag and the expiry date field, both encoded as sub-tags within tag 26.

PayNow identifies payment recipients through proxy identifiers — human-readable addresses that map to bank accounts in the ABS PayNow registry. Mobile Number (tag 0) uses the Singapore +65 format (e.g. 91234567 → +6591234567) and is most common for P2P transfers. NRIC/FIN (tag 1) uses the 9-character Singapore identity number format [S/T/F/G]XXXXXXXZ for citizens, PRs and long-term pass holders. UEN (Unique Entity Number, tag 2) uses a 9–10 character format ending with a letter for companies, charities, and government agencies. The proxy type is encoded as sub-tag 01 within EMV tag 26 of the PayNow QR payload.

A PayNow QR code encodes a sequence of TLV (Tag-Length-Value) fields as a single ASCII string following the EMV MPM specification. The Application Identifier SG.PAYNOW is placed in sub-tag 00 of EMV tag 26. Sub-tag 01 encodes the proxy type (0=mobile, 1=NRIC/FIN, 2=UEN), sub-tag 02 contains the proxy value, sub-tag 03 contains the editable flag (0=fixed, 1=editable), and sub-tag 04 contains the optional expiry date in YYYYMMDD format. The transaction currency is SGD (ISO 4217 code 702). Country code is SG. Point of Initiation 11 = static, 12 = dynamic. Tag 63 holds the 4-character CRC16-CCITT hex checksum.

PayNow QR introduces two features not present in most other EMV QR standards: the editable amount flag (sub-tag 03) and the expiry date (sub-tag 04). The editable flag '0' means the amount is fixed — the payer cannot modify the preset value, useful for exact-amount invoices. Flag '1' means editable — the payer can change the amount before confirming, useful for shared bills or tips. The expiry date is encoded in YYYYMMDD format (e.g. 20261231 = December 31, 2026). After the expiry date, the QR code is no longer valid — the payer's app will show an error. Useful for event payments, time-limited offers, or invoices with due dates.

MAS has been at the forefront of ASEAN cross-border payment integration. Singapore's PayNow was the first payment system in the world to establish a bilateral real-time cross-border link — with Thailand's PromptPay in April 2021. The network has since expanded to Malaysia (DuitNow, since 2021), India (UPI, since 2021), Indonesia (QRIS, since 2023), and the Philippines (QR Ph, since 2023). These linkages allow, for example, a Malaysian tourist in Singapore to scan a PayNow QR code with their Maybank or CIMB app — paying in MYR while the Singapore merchant receives SGD. Currency conversion happens automatically through the linked central banks' FX infrastructure. No cash, no currency exchange, no fees beyond the prevailing exchange rate.

All MAS-licensed banks and major e-wallets participate in PayNow. Every app is fully interoperable — a payment from DBS PayLah! arrives instantly in a Singtel Dash wallet. The ABS manages the PayNow proxy registry that connects all participants. Major banks include DBS/POSB (PayLah!), OCBC (Pay Anyone), UOB (Mighty), Standard Chartered, Citibank SG, HSBC Singapore, Maybank SG, Bank of China SG, and ICBC Singapore. E-wallets include GrabPay and Singtel Dash.

SGQR (Singapore QR) was launched in September 2018 to solve the problem of multiple QR code stickers from different payment providers cluttering merchant counters. SGQR consolidates up to 27 different payment schemes into a single, standardised QR label. Under SGQR, a merchant displays one QR code that simultaneously encodes PayNow, Nets, GrabPay, and other supported payment schemes. The customer's app reads the entire SGQR payload and automatically activates the appropriate payment scheme. SGQR is a superset of PayNow QR: a valid SGQR code always contains a PayNow payload, but a standalone PayNow QR code is not necessarily a full SGQR code. For basic merchant use, a pure PayNow QR code (as generated by qrpayhub.com) is sufficient and accepted by all PayNow-enabled apps.