As Singapore marches ahead in its Smart Nation push, SMU Associate Professor of Marketing (Education) Seshan Ramaswami noted that Singapore appears to remain “behind the curve on cashless payment systems”. He added that businesses seemed to be waiting for some sort of inflexion point in cashless payment adoption by consumers before they expand their own acceptance of various systems.

Associate Prof Ramaswami also noted that there remains constraints to the widespread adoption of different cashless systems such as Visa and Mastercard's transaction fees; retailers who fix a lower limit on transaction amounts before accepting Nets payments; and modes such as Apple Pay still being new to the market. ""It is when many more small retailers and service providers start accepting these payment systems for even small amounts that cashless payment will really take off," said Associate Prof Ramaswami.