The challenge
The Central Provident Fund Board (CPFB) wanted to make it quicker and more convenient for Singaporeans to receive government payments, by eliminating issuance and encashment of cheques, streamlining disbursement processes and automating reconciliation, including refunds from merchants.
The solution
CPFB worked with its partner bank to develop and implement a solution named GovCash. The new solution is designed and developed to be flexible, comprehensive and scalable, as well as pushes boundaries and capabilities to solve the issues outlined in the problem statement.
This digitally driven, first-in-market solution – launched by CPFB in collaboration with the Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech) and OCBC – enables government payments to be disbursed to all Singaporeans quickly and conveniently; regardless of whether they are young or old, banked or unbanked, digitally-savvy or otherwise.
“Singaporeans can withdraw government payments instantly in cash at over 500 OCBC ATMs located conveniently across Singapore. They do not need to have an OCBC bank account, or any bank account for that matter, to perform these self-service withdrawals,” explains Lee Huat Tang, Deputy Chief Executive Officer.
For the digitally-savvy and banked Singaporeans, GovCash has additional features besides self-service cash withdrawals at OCBC ATMs. These include:
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PayNow-NRIC feature to transfer government payments to the user’s bank account.
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Scan and Pay feature to use the government payments directly to transact with merchants.
Best practice and innovation
The GovCash solution streamlined a process that was manual, tedious and time-consuming for both CPFB and Singaporeans, to one that is digital, convenient and available 24/7.
This solution combined GovWallet, GovTech’s digital wallet service, and biometric technology (Singpass Facial Verification) to provide enhanced security for authentication. It is the first in the market to combine biometric technology with ATMs for cash disbursements, without the need for an ATM card.
In addition, GovCash enables QR scanning and PayNow payment, an instant real-time payment system developed by the Association of Banks in Singapore. This offers a secure funds transfer service that allows users to receive money in their bank account via identity card number. Its interface also facilitates inter-bank peer-to-peer and person-to-merchant transactions.
Key benefits
The GovCash solution is unique, first-in-market and sustainable. It uses innovative and advanced technology to future-proof services to citizens and has received numerous market and industry recognitions. The solution also scored highly on environmental, social and governance (ESG) as it phases out all paper disbursements, while remaining inclusive as we go about digitialisating our processes.
“Receiving the Adam Smith Awards Asia 2023 is testament to the relentless pursuit of excellence for the CPFB team and our partner OCBC. We will continue to find innovative ways to improve our service offerings to Singaporeans,” concludes Lee Huat Tang.
“Singaporeans can withdraw government payments instantly in cash at over 500 OCBC ATMs located conveniently across Singapore. They do not need to have an OCBC bank account, or any bank account for that matter, to perform these self-service withdrawals.”
Lee Huat Tang, Deputy Chief Executive Officer
