'Not sure where my cheque book is': Consumers, businesses unfazed as Singapore aims to go cheque-free
Singapore has announced plans to do away with paper cheques, starting with corporate cheques by end-2025.

A person writing a cheque. (File photo: iStock)
SINGAPORE: It was once the primary payment method for all types of bills and big-ticket purchases. But over the years, Mr Peter Tan has had few opportunities to use his chequebook.
“I’ve had my current chequebook for the past 15 years or so, but I don’t think I am halfway through it,” said the 71-year-old.
The last time he wrote a paper cheque was last year when he paid for his wife’s insurance premiums.
“Even for that, our agent told us there are other ways to pay now,” he said with a laugh.
With greater adoption of e-payments by corporates and individuals, the use of cheques in Singapore has been on the decline.
Annual cheque transaction volume fell by almost 70 per cent from 61 million in 2016 to 19 million in 2022.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has announced plans to do away with cheques, starting with corporate cheques by end-2025.
Individuals will still be able to use cheques “for a period” after 2025. This will be determined after the MAS conducts another public consultation exercise next year.
As falling usage pushes up the costs of handling cheques, seven banks – DBS, UOB, OCBC, Citibank, HSBC, Maybank and Standard Chartered – will start charging customers for issuing Singapore dollar-denominated cheques by Nov 1.
Other banks will do so by July next year.
There will also be separate charges for depositors of Singapore dollar-denominated cheques. This will be implemented in phases.
The upcoming changes do not seem to be a problem for those who CNA spoke to. Among 16 people, only two, including Mr Tan, had dealt with a cheque over the last year.
A 68-year-old who only wished to be known as Mr Chan wrote a cheque last year when he needed to pay commission fees to his property agent.
“I still have a lot of cheques left in my chequebook, so why not,” he said.
Several mentioned that they have not written or received a cheque for multiple years, with one telling CNA that he is “not sure where my chequebook is”. At least five people in their 20s and 30s said they have never written a cheque and they have no intention of ever applying for a chequebook.
Reasons for these include the myriad of digital payment methods which offer speed, convenience and easy reference.
There are other benefits like not having to pay for a new chequebook and doing away with the worry about cheques being lost in transit.
“With digital payments, cheques are a hassle now,” said Ms Florence Lee. “And if a cheque gets passed from one person to another, there’s also the concern about having your personal information passed around.”
But Mr Tan, who uses GIRO and bank transfers to pay most of his bills these days, said with the rise in scams of late, cheques still “offer some sense of security”.
“I am a little scared with so much news about scams … but I think seniors like us will just have to learn iBanking and PayNow, and keep up,” he said.
WHERE CHEQUES ARE STILL IN USE
For some transactions, paper cheques are still very much in use. These include property-related payments – such as option fees by a prospective buyer and security deposits by tenants – where cheques remain “widely used”, said ERA Realty Network key executive officer Eugene Lim.
In the case of option fee payments, alternatives like bank transfers are available but they are “not preferred” by home buyers, especially those who are older.
“Buyers feel safer using cheques because they can cancel the cheque before it clears should something go wrong. (But) they cannot do the same with direct bank transfers,” Mr Lim said.
Prospective private home buyers are also often asked to submit blank cheques to express their interest in a new property launch.
However, Mr Lim said this practice will likely be replaced by electronic payment methods in the next two to three years, as the real estate sector moves ahead progressively with digitalisation.
Beyond the property sector, casinos and the finance industry also use cheques.
Casinos may issue cheques when making payments to their patrons. Such casino-issued cheques can be presented at other casinos, including foreign casinos, in exchange for funds, according to the MAS.
Cheques are also used by financial institutions to settle securities-related transactions and make payments to their wealth management clients.
MAS, in responding to feedback received in its public consultation on cheques, said existing e-payment solutions can be used as alternatives for these practices, which are “not solely dependent” on cheques.
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Casino operators declined to comment when contacted for this article, while two brokerages told CNA that they are already pivoting to e-payments.
CGS-CIMB Securities said it has dialled back on the use of cheques since mid-2021, with the switch to e-payments generating “largely positive feedback” from both customers and employees.
The brokerage no longer issues payments via cheques, except for US dollar-denominated cheques which it aims to phase out “in the coming months”, said its Singapore chief executive officer Malcolm Koo.
Over at PhillipCapital, cheques make up less than 1 per cent of the payments it receives from clients. For Singapore-dollar cheques, it receives fewer than 20 on average each month.
About 10 per cent of its payments to customers is in the form of cheques.
“As there is still a large group of older customers who do not trust e-payment, more time is required to educate and convince them,” said managing director Luke Lim.
E-PAYMENTS MORE CONVENIENT: BUSINESSES
Other businesses echoed this, with automotive firm Dickson Group's founder Kim Wah Boon saying that some customers do not have online banking or prefer a more traditional mode of transaction.
But overall, businesses that spoke to CNA see little impact from the elimination of corporate cheques by 2025. In fact, having a deadline could help to speed up the transition to digital payment methods which are more convenient and easier to track and audit, they said.
By comparison, the processing of cheques is “tedious” and has become “a nightmare” as banks become more stringent amid the rise in scams, said X-Inc’s chief executive Nichol Ng.
X-Inc, which runs food distributors FoodXervices and GroXers, still receives cheques from its business partners, although the volume has halved from 10 years ago.
“We have been asking customers to look at, for example, credit cards since 2010 but take-up is slow,” said Ms Ng. “I seriously hope this move will reduce cheques further.”
At Korean fast-food chain Jinjja Chicken, digital payment methods such as telegraphic transfers and PayNow have been the way to go since its accounts team began working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We find it more efficient and everything is recorded in the system,” said managing director Bernard Tay, noting that the processing of cheques is delayed during public holidays or if the wrong details were written.
But in the case of e-payments, the process is done instantly.
“No more delay and miscommunication,” he said.