Evolution of Singapore’s e-Card-

Recently, EZL of Singapore and the Lingnan Tong Company from Guangdong province announced the cross-border acceptance of their respective stored-value cards. Though this is a noteworthy achievement, it is important to point out that interoperability outside a common framework comes at a higher cost, not to mention the lack of proximity. However, such a collaboration could be worthwhile in Southeast Asia. Given the large cross-border travel across ASEAN, it would be quite beneficial to develop a common standard that allows for the use of a common stored-value card for e-payments from transport to retail purchases within the region.

In this context, Singapore has developed a robust standard for e-payments, which has demonstrated the cost effectiveness and efficiency of such an approach. The establishment of this standard in Singapore has taken place in tandem with the evolution of ticketing in public transport (Table 1).

From early prototype to standardised card

As far back as 1990, the integrated ticketing system (ITS) was introduced in the public transport sector in Singapore in the form of a magnetic card. This early version had many drawbacks: it had a high failure rate, while entailing high maintenance costs. However, it still played a useful role. Even today, magnetic cards are used for public transport in some parts of the world, though they are gradually being phased out.

Singapore migrated to its first contactless smart card system, known as Enhanced Integrated Fare System (EIFS), in 2002. Its economic viability was clearly established over the next few years, even though a proprietary technology had been used. Concurrently, a contact stored-value card for electronic road pricing was also introduced. As the two cards had different issuers, the challenge was to create a common card that would still enable the issuers to pursue their independent commercial interests.

The merger of the two systems to provide greater flexibility in the choice of cards entailed the development of a common standard, which was done in consultation with stakeholders comprising regulatory bodies, service providers, and card and chip suppliers.

The making of a multi-purpose smart card

 Transaction completeness

  • Corrupted or incomplete updates to the card will be rejected in order to ensure the integrity of the data and prompt the patron to re-present the card to capture the full transaction.

High operating temperature

  • The card can withstand temperatures as high as 85 degrees Celsius and storage temperatures of 100 degrees Celsius, so and is thus suitable for gantry-less toll and surface car parks.

Meet high performance for free-flow vehicles

  • The common card can be used for electronic road pricing in Singapore, including expressways where free-flow vehicles move at high speeds.

Security of card as payment instrument

  • With more card and chip suppliers coming into the market over the past few years with more cost-effective and secure cards, we were able to implement the best available and upgradeable security features to minimise revenue losses.
  • The signature attached to a transaction is used to identify the service provider/merchant and card issuer definitively. The issuer has confirmation that the transaction is generated by the card and that it has not been tampered with.
  • The requirements of a national card were published as a draft to generate wider public support, while giving service providers and industry experts the opportunity to review and offer their feedback.
  • Development time was shortened by drawing upon existing international standards (ISO 7816, ISO 14443) and best practices from the published standards of other countries such as Calypso (France) and ITSO (UK).
  • The outcome was the Common e-purse Application, widely known as CePAS, or Singapore Standard SS518, in 2006. It took another two years to develop a suitable  card-based CePAS.

Certification

  • A certification centre was set up to enforce a common national standard for cards and authenticate devices to prevent the proliferation of fragmented systems.

Integrity of transactions in CePAS

  • Top-up – Fraudulent top-up or cloned cards are quickly detected in order to reduce losses to the card issuer. Unaccounted top-ups constitute less than S$20,000 of the total figure of more than $1.5 billion annually.
  • Usage – Every transaction carries previous transaction information to provide redundancy, which is a major benefit for bus service providers. Buses operate in a harsh environment where transactions can be lost due to bus breakdowns, accidents, failure to return to bus depots, and faulty equipment.

Consequently, missing transactions declined by 98 per cent from S$4 million to less than S$100,000 per year in Singapore. Overall, transactions from service providers were quickly and accurately transmitted, cleared, and settled. A new standard ticket for single/multiple-trip travel of up to six trips was introduced earlier this year, which has simplified the purchase and usage experience for casual users of the transit system.

Distance fares

  • A new fare structure was introduced in 2010, which fully integrated rail and bus fares, based on distance. So no penalty is imposed on transfers within a specified period (currently 45 minutes).
  • The “distance fares” model was launched successfully on July 3, 2010. This model was made possible because of the significant processing power of current contactless smart cards.

A winning formula for smart card development

The key to the evolution of ticketing in Singapore lay in the development of a national standard for the ticket namely, contactless smart cards. They have enabled all service providers to have a clear interoperable standard to follow and circumvent the risks and constraints of disparate proprietary systems. The performance of the card was specified to ensure usage across a broad range of services. Moreover, a high security level was instituted to minimise losses of revenue to card issuers and service providers. Finally, Singapore was able to develop the card standard relatively efficiently by deriving lessons from existing international standards and best practices, which saved considerable time and effort.

About the Author

Silvester Prakasam

Director (Fare System Division) Land Transport Authority, Singapore

For further details contact: silvester_prakasam@lta.gov.sg