With DBS's promise to waive all 'inward' PayNow Corporate fees for SMEs and corporates until year end 2019, this development has undoubtedly eased the financial burden of adopting digital solutions for Singaporean commercial enterprises.

DBS wants to encourage companies to go cashless, paperless and reduce time spent on paper-based administrative tasks. By utilising PayNow Corporate, introduced on August 13, businesses large and small can expect to receive payments instantly instead of the current time of two working days taken for cheques to be processed and cleared.

DBS expects fees on more than one million inward PayNow Corporate transactions to be waived in the next 18 months. DBS also expects to register more than 21,000 SMEs by end 2019.

"Changing perceptions and old habits are the key challenges for many new corporate digital initiatives. We are heartened by the results DBS has seen so far, with adoption rates for digital payment methods on an uptrend among our corporate customers," says Jasmin Ng, managing director, group transaction services, DBS Bank.

DBS reveals widespread client interest in PayNow Corporate, including by government clients, such as Singapore Land Authority, insurance companies, as well as leading retailers and F&B chains.

By automating the payment to confirmation process for PayNow Corporate, DBS aims to embed PayNow in their customers' business processes, thereby reducing risks, enhancing controls and increasing productivity in the process.

"We are the first general insurer to implement end-to-end PayNow capabilities for our travel insurance customers. We have plans to progressively roll out this payment service across our other products and services so that more customers can benefit from this convenient and seamless experience," reveals Claudia Salem, CEO of AIG Singapore and head of country operations Southeast Asia.

Partly on the back of heavy investment and training, DBS believes there is a greater client acceptance of new technological processes, such as e-payment solutions, including Giro, FAST and now PayNow. Today, 92% of all payment transactions carried out by DBS' corporate customers are done digitally. Since 2017, DBS states payments via FAST grew by more than 300% and digital payments increase by 25% amongst corporate clients.