NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – When it launches its SimplyGo service April 4, Singapore’s Land Transport Authority will become the first major transit authority in Asia outside of China to launch acceptance of open-loop payments of fares.
The commercial launch of the service, announced by a government transport official last week, follows a lengthy two-year trial aiming to replace Singapore’s closed-loop stored-value cards with account-based ticketing and open loop credit and debit. SimplyGo follows an open-loop launch on a small Metro service in Taiwan in January.