Standard Chartered to provide 400 additional cash points for its clients

This is through a partnership with soCash.

Standard Chartered Bank (Singapore) Limited recently announced an industry-first partnership with Singapore-based fintech startup, soCash, to provide over 400 additional cash points for its customers through the Bank’s mobile app (“SC Mobile”). In a few weeks, customers can get cash from merchants such as Buzz, U Star and U Mart, as well as convenience stores and minimarts island-wide.

Standard Chartered’s focus has always been on delivering a seamless payment experience for its customers. Over the last two years, the Bank has been enhancing its digital payment capabilities with the offering of mobile wallets such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay, as well as peer-to-peer digital funds transfer via PayNow. While customers’ adoption of digital platforms has been strong and cashless payments have become increasingly mainstream, there are still significant pockets of merchants which currently only accept cash payments. Through this collaboration with soCash, customers have the option of utilising the Bank’s digital platform to retrieve cash at their convenience.

soCash is integrated into SC Mobile, where customers can select the amount of cash they want and collect the cash from the available merchant of their choice closest to them, all within the Bank’s mobile app. Similar to a retail transaction, the transaction flow rides on the EFTPOS framework available today at merchant locations. No retail purchase is required, and the service is provided free-of-charge to Bank customers. The transaction takes place in a secure environment within SC Mobile, and the authentication is done by customers using the SC Mobile credentials. Customers will also receive SMS notifications for this transaction.

Andrew Chia, Head of Retail Banking, Standard Chartered Bank Singapore, said,

“We are always on the lookout for innovative solutions to simplify our customers’ banking experiences and better serve their payment needs. We are thus excited to partner soCash in reinventing the way we bank our customers, enabling them to use digital platforms to easily get cash at their convenience. With this new channel to complement our existing ATMs, we will be massively increasing the number of locations at which our customers can get access to cash.”

Hari Sivan, CEO of soCash, said,

"We are honoured to have Standard Chartered as our first banking partner in Asia. We are bridging the divide of online and physical for the banking industry. By marrying the ease of transaction enabled by soCash, our island-wide network and the security of SC Mobile, consumers can look forward to enjoying greater convenience by having options to obtain cash beyond the traditional ATM network.”

This partnership with soCash is part of the Bank’s agenda to deliver simpler, faster and more convenient banking through digital channels to meet customers’ needs in the new digital ecosystem. The Bank believes that collaboration between the financial and technological sector will lead the way forward. soCash, has been granted the Financial Sector Technology & Innovation Scheme- Proof Of Concepts from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The scheme provides funding support to Singapore-based financial institutions as well as technology or solution providers working with them for early stage development of novel solutions to financial industry problems.