eGIRO

eGIRO addresses a practical pain point in Singapore’s payments ecosystem: the legacy GIRO system — which underpins recurring billing for millions of Singaporeans — required physical forms, wet signatures, and processing times of 5–10 business days before a mandate became active. For a market with near-universal internet banking penetration and consumer expectations calibrated to PayNow instant payments, the paper GIRO UX was a structural friction point. eGIRO makes mandate setup a digital, real-time process.

Legacy GIRO vs. eGIRO

Legacy GIRO: Biller sends a paper GIRO form to the customer. Customer fills it in, signs it, returns it (by post or in-person). Biller submits to their bank. Bank processes the mandate in the next batch cycle. Mandate activates 5–10 business days after submission. Typical drop-off rate on paper GIRO sign-up flows was high — each step in the physical process lost conversions.

eGIRO: Merchant redirects customer to their bank’s eGIRO portal (or embeds it via API). Customer authenticates with internet banking credentials, reviews mandate terms, confirms. Mandate is activated immediately. The entire flow takes under 2 minutes for a customer who is already logged into their bank. Conversion rates are materially higher than paper GIRO.

How eGIRO Works (Technical)

eGIRO is built on an API framework specified by ABS. The flow:

1. Merchant initiates mandate: Sends a mandate setup request to their bank (the “collecting bank”) via the eGIRO API, specifying the customer’s bank, maximum debit amount, frequency, and start date
2. Bank-to-bank relay: The collecting bank routes the mandate request to the customer’s bank (the “paying bank”) via the ABS eGIRO infrastructure
3. Customer authentication: The paying bank presents the mandate to the customer via internet banking or mobile app. Customer reviews and confirms with their banking credentials
4. Mandate confirmation: The paying bank returns confirmation to the collecting bank. Both parties receive a mandate reference
5. Recurring debit: On scheduled dates, the collecting bank debits the paying bank under the mandate via GIRO batch clearing (processed via IBG — Interbank GIRO — which runs multiple daily cycles)

Settlement is via IBG batch clearing — not real-time. Funds typically reach the merchant’s account on the same business day or next business day depending on the cycle.

Participating Banks

eGIRO is supported by all major Singapore retail banks: DBS/POSB, OCBC, UOB, Citibank, Standard Chartered, HSBC, Maybank, and others. Near-universal coverage means merchants can reach essentially all Singapore bank account holders without needing a paper fallback for most customers.

Operator Considerations

For SaaS and subscription operators in Singapore: eGIRO is the lowest-MDR recurring billing option for SGD collections. Unlike card recurring (1–2% MDR) or PayNow (available for one-off but not natively recurring), eGIRO debit is priced as a low-cost bank transfer.

Integration: Merchants integrate eGIRO through a Singapore-licensed bank or a PSP that has built on top of ABS eGIRO APIs (e.g., banks directly, or via fintech intermediaries offering payment facilitation). Direct bank integration requires a GIRO agreement and technical onboarding with your collecting bank.

Failure handling: Failed eGIRO debits (insufficient funds, account closed) are returned via the IBG return cycle, typically within 1–2 business days. Merchants should implement return event handling in their dunning workflows.

eGIRO and PayNow Coexistence

eGIRO (recurring debit) and PayNow (instant credit push) serve different use cases in Singapore’s payment stack:

• PayNow: Customer initiates a push payment to the merchant. Real-time, no chargeback, widely used for one-off payments
• eGIRO: Merchant initiates a pull debit from the customer’s account. Mandate-based, batch settlement, used for subscriptions and recurring billing

For full recurring billing coverage in Singapore, operators typically pair eGIRO (for bank account recurring) with card-on-file (for cardholder preference) and PayNow QR/links (for one-off payments).