In a very bold move Fintech firms to get access to Singapore’s real-time payment system. I like how this type of small countries like Estonia and Singapore become test labs for the financial technology.
It is easy to do radical new things that use technology and change habits in a very technology oriented location like Singapore. The big challenge is to apply this new tech in the upper and lower end of the market.
The upper market represented by rich countries with huge financial operations history like US, Germany , France etc. where the inertia is huge. People got used to the “old banks” the the “old money transfer” schemes and do not trust a lot new tech in the financial domain. This is mostly due to the firm grip banking monopolies have on this markets and the “FUD” they spread about new tech or new challengers.
The lower market is represented by the huge poorly unbaked Africa and South Asia regions. There the people are eager to embrace new tech that is helping them to do payments. I have seen “simple people” in Africa more eager to embrace new tech in banking than in Europe or US. This is because they lack a good financial system, their banks are sluggish, inefficient and corrupted.