Key takeaways
- Card payments at the point of sale reached 1,686 million transactions in 2025 (726 million credit and charge, 960 million debit), up from 804 million in 2019 (MAS).
- The average debit card payment at the point of sale fell from $64 in 2019 to $30 in 2025, a sign that cards now handle small everyday purchases.
- FAST transfers, the rail PayNow runs on, grew from 93 million in 2019 to 642 million in 2025.
- Cheques cleared fell from 45 million in 2019 to 5.5 million in 2025. ATM withdrawals fell from 205 million to 139 million.
- 95.6% of enterprises used e-payment in 2025 (IMDA). About 350,000 business entities were registered on PayNow as of December 2025 (MAS-ABS).
Where Singapore’s payment statistics come from
Three official sources cover most of what an F&B owner needs:
- MAS Semi-Annual Retail Payment Statistics. MAS publishes half-yearly figures for cheque clearing, GIRO and FAST, plus industry statistics for card payments, e-money and ATM withdrawals. MAS notes that the industry statistics come from regular surveys of selected financial institutions and may not represent the whole industry, so cross-comparisons may not be conclusive.
- PayNow Generation 2 report. The Phase 1 report by MAS and the Association of Banks in Singapore (25 June 2026) gives PayNow registration and value figures.
- IMDA enterprise survey. IMDA’s infocomm usage figures, published by SingStat in table M651551, give the share of enterprises using e-payment.
Full-year figures below come from the MAS H2 2025, H2 2022 and H1 2020 releases. Volumes are in millions of transactions.
Card payments at the point of sale, 2019 to 2025
| Full year | POS credit and charge (mil) | Average size | POS debit (mil) | Average size | All card payments (mil) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 399 | $108 | 405 | $64 | 1,170 |
| 2022 | 480 | $94 | 574 | $48 | 1,629 |
| 2024 | 682 | $80 | 853 | $33 | 2,286 |
| 2025 | 726 | $78 | 960 | $30 | 2,528 |
“POS” means card-present payments at a merchant terminal. “All card payments” also includes card-not-present (online) payments. The key trend for a counter business is the falling average transaction size. Debit card payments at the point of sale more than doubled in number between 2019 and 2025, while the average payment halved from $64 to $30. In 2025, POS debit payments were worth S$28,399 million and POS credit and charge card payments S$56,490 million.
Online card payments: the card-not-present side
MAS also reports card-not-present (CNP) payments, which are card payments made online or in apps rather than at a terminal. For an F&B business, these include card payments on your own online ordering page.
| Full year | CNP credit and charge (mil) | Average size | CNP debit (mil) | Average size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 194 | $124 | 171 | $56 |
| 2022 | 280 | $119 | 294 | $64 |
| 2024 | 396 | $113 | 355 | $59 |
| 2025 | 456 | $104 | 386 | $54 |
CNP credit and charge card payments more than doubled between 2019 and 2025, reaching S$47,500 million in value in 2025. Online card payments are still larger on average than payments at a terminal, but the gap is narrowing as more small, everyday purchases move online. MAS does not split CNP payments by merchant type, so there is no official figure for online card spending on food.
The half-year figures also show a seasonal pattern. In 2025, POS credit and charge card payments rose from 346 million in the first half to 380 million in the second, and POS debit from 454 million to 507 million. The same pattern appears in 2024. The second half, with its year-end festive season, is consistently the busier one.
Cheques and ATM withdrawals
| Full year | SGD cheques cleared (mil) | ATM withdrawals (mil) | Average ATM withdrawal |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 45 | 205 | $298 |
| 2022 | 18 | 173 | $325 |
| 2024 | 8.4 | 158 | $350 |
| 2025 | 5.5 | 139 | $371 |
Cheque volumes fell by almost 90% over six years. ATM withdrawals fell by about a third in number, while the average withdrawal grew. People are visiting ATMs less often and taking out more each time. Cash is still used, but the data shows it is used less often. MAS does not publish a figure for the share of retail spending made in cash. For overall retail sales trends, see the official Retail Sales Index figures.
FAST and PayNow
PayNow is a central addressing scheme that runs on FAST, so FAST volumes are the best official indicator of PayNow growth. MAS does not publish PayNow as a separate line in these tables.
| Full year | FAST transfers (mil) |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 93 |
| 2022 | 292 |
| 2024 | 500 |
| 2025 | 642 |
FAST transfers in 2025 were worth S$797,746 million, with an average size of $1,242. The PayNow Generation 2 report adds PayNow-specific figures:
| PayNow measure | Figure | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Total proxy registrations | About 11 million (6.3 million mobile, 4.5 million NRIC/FIN, 0.5 million UEN) | As of December 2025 |
| Business entities registered | About 350,000 | As of December 2025 |
| Consumer payment value | About S$154 billion (S$132 billion in 2024) | 2025 |
| Business payment value | About S$147 billion (S$109 billion in 2024) | 2025 |
| Cross-border value, three live corridors | S$371 million | 2025 |
The report also estimates that more than 90% of businesses accept PayNow, but that figure depends on stated assumptions about inactive and duplicate UEN registrations. Treat it as an estimate, not a count.
E-money
MAS reports 2,057 million e-money transactions in 2025 (previously called stored value facilities), worth S$2,615 million, with an average size of $1.27. The tiny average suggests very small, frequent payments. MAS does not break the figure down by use, so it can’t tell you how much e-wallet spending happens at F&B outlets.
SGQR: what is and isn’t published
According to MAS, SGQR is the world’s first unified payment QR code, combining several payment schemes into one label, and the scheme is co-owned by MAS and IMDA. The MAS e-payments page says SGQR has been deployed throughout Singapore since 2018. Neither page publishes the number of SGQR labels or merchants in use, or the volume of SGQR transactions, so we do not quote one. If you are deciding between a static QR label and a full POS at a stall, see hawker POS vs SGQR.
Business adoption: IMDA’s enterprise e-payment figures
| Year | Enterprises using e-payment |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 84.8% |
| 2021 | 87.1% |
| 2022 | 92.6% |
| 2023 | 93.6% |
| 2024 | 94.2% |
| 2025 | 95.6% |
Source: IMDA, Infocomm Usage by Enterprises, via SingStat M651551. The figure covers all enterprises, not only SMEs or F&B. IMDA’s SME digital adoption figures look at smaller firms. IMDA does not break it down by industry in this table.
What this means for an F&B counter’s payment mix
The official data points in one direction: small, frequent payments are moving to cards, PayNow and wallets. For an F&B counter, that has practical consequences:
- Accept the everyday methods. Contactless debit and credit cards, PayNow QR and NETS cover most customers. Check that your terminal handles each without a separate device per scheme. See payment terminals in Singapore.
- Watch the cost of small tickets. With average debit payments around $30, fixed per-transaction fees matter more than they did when tickets were larger. Ask each provider for the full fee schedule in writing.
- Reconcile automatically. More methods means more settlement reports. Matching them by hand is where errors creep in.
- Keep a cash process. Cash is falling but has not disappeared. Our guide to running a cashless restaurant covers the trade-offs.
ChaChaCha, powered by AppsPOS, accepts PayNow, PayLah!, NETS, Visa and Mastercard, and GrabPay through DBS, UOB and 2C2P, with split payments and automated reconciliation. See POS payments for details.
How to read your own payment mix
- Export a month of sales by payment method from your POS.
- Work out each method’s share of transactions and of value. The two shares can differ a lot, because some methods are used mainly for small tickets and others for large ones.
- Calculate the average ticket by method and compare it with MAS’s national averages.
- Add up the fees per method, then divide by the value to get your effective cost.
- Repeat every quarter to see how your mix is shifting.
If one method’s effective cost is well above the others, that is the conversation to have with your acquirer or bank. Don’t steer customers away from a method they prefer without checking the numbers first: a lost sale costs more than a fee.
