NETS (company)

Network for Electronic Transfers, colloquially known as NETS, is a Singaporean electronic payment service provider. Founded in 1986 by a consortium of local banks, it aims to establish the debit network and drive the adoption of electronic payments in Singapore. It is owned by DBS Bank, OCBC Bank and United Overseas Bank (UOB).

The NETS Group (comprising NETS, BCS and BCSIS) provides a full suite of payments and financial processing services including direct debit and credit payments at point-of-sale (NETS) and online (eNETS), mobile payments (NETSPay), card services (CashCard, FlashPay card), electronic funds transfer (FAST, PayNow, GIRO) and payment and clearing services (Real-Time Gross Settlement, Cheque Truncation System). NETS is also a member of the Asian Payment Network (APN) and a council member of UnionPay International.

NETS was first introduced to the public on 27 June 1985 as a 2-month pilot project involving 10,000 ATM card holders from the five local banks, namely DBS Bank, OCBC Bank, UOB, POSB Bank and OUB through 64 terminals installed at participating government offices, supermarkets, department stores and petrol kiosks. The service was officially launched on 18 January 1986, allowing 1.3 million ATM card holders to make transactions through the initial NETS network of 195 terminals located in various retail outlets and by 1993, consumer spending through NETS reached S$1.14 billion.

In 2020, NETS Group signed a long-term lease to two full floors and a ground-floor unit, at Boustead Projects' development, 351 on Braddell.

NETS operates Singapore's national debit scheme enabling customers of DBS Bank, POSB, HSBC, Maybank, OCBC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, CIMB and UOB to make payments using their physical/contactless ATM cards or mobile devices at more than 120,000 acceptance points in Singapore including major retailers, food courts, hawker centres, convenience stores and supermarkets.^{[citation needed]}

The nationwide acceptance infrastructure is the largest in Singapore and includes 54,000 Unified Point-of-Sale (Unified POS) terminals (which accept NETS, NETS FlashPay, debit and credit cards such as VISA, Mastercard, American Express, UnionPay, RuPay and JCB) and 94,000 QR acceptance points (for payments via NETSPay, PayLah!, Pay Anyone and Mighty). In 2011, NETS' debit system was designated as national payment system by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

In November 2018, it was announced that NETS can be used at 4,500 acceptance points in Malaysia, allowing users of NETS enabled cards issued by DBS, POSB, OCBC Bank and United Overseas Bank.

NETS introduced the 1st generation chip-based CashCard in 1995. The CashCard is a stored value card that is predominantly used as a payment mode for Singapore's Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) and car park charges since the introduction of the in-vehicle unit in 1997. The CashCard can also be used for retail purchases.