CEPAS
Encyclopedia
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
an specification for an electronic money
Electronic money
Electronic money is money or scrip that is only exchanged electronically. Typically, this involves the use of computer networks, the internet and digital stored value systems...
smart card
Smart card
A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card , is any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits. A smart card or microprocessor cards contain volatile memory and microprocessor components. The card is made of plastic, generally polyvinyl chloride, but sometimes acrylonitrile...
. CEPAS has been deployed islandwide, replacing the previous original EZ-Link
EZ-Link
The EZ-Link card is a contactless smart card based on the Sony FeliCa smartcard technology and used for the payment of public transportation fares in Singapore, with limited use in the small payments retail sector...
card effective 1 October 2009.
Function
The CEPAS provides the command sets and data bytes that can be used for contactless e-purse applications, and focuses on the debitDebit
Debit and credit are the two aspects of every financial transaction. Their use and implication is the fundamental concept in the double-entry bookkeeping system, in which every debit transaction must have a corresponding credit transaction and vice versa.Debits and credits are a system of notation...
and credit
Debits and credits
Debit and credit are the two aspects of every financial transaction. Their use and implication is the fundamental concept in the double-entry bookkeeping system, in which every debit transaction must have a corresponding credit transaction and vice versa.Debits and credits are a system of notation...
areas. The most recent version of the standard is CEPAS 2.0. The standard will allow the interoperability of multi-purpose stored value (MPSV) card payment schemes from different card issuers and system operators
Background
CEPAS is spearheaded by the Infocomm Development Authority of SingaporeInfocomm Development Authority of Singapore
The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore is a statutory board of the Singapore Government, under the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts .-History:...
(IDA), and is one of the key next generation e-Payment initiatives under Singapore's iN2015 infocomm masterplan led by IDA. The vision of CEPAS is for Singaporeans to have a single MPSV card for use all around Singapore for micro-payments. This includes transit (bus, MRT
MRT
- Rapid transit systems :* Jakarta Mass Rapid Transit* Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit system in Kaohsiung, Taiwan* Manila Metro Rail Transit System* Mass Rapid Transit system in Singapore* MRT , officially named Mass Rapid Transit...
, LRT
LRT
LRT may stand for:*IATA airport code for Lorient South Brittany Airport, France*Lewis Roberts-Thomson*Lithuanian National Radio and Television *Light rail, a form of urban rail public transportation...
), taxi, motoring (ERP
Electronic Road Pricing
The Electronic Road Pricing scheme is an electronic toll collection scheme adopted in Singapore to manage traffic by road pricing, and as a usage-based taxation mechanism to complement the purchase-based Certificate of Entitlement system...
, parking), retail, and other services.
CEPAS is a result of close collaboration by IDA with different industry players and the Land Transport Authority
Land Transport Authority
The Land Transport Authority is a statutory board under the Ministry of Transport of the Singapore Government.-History:...
(LTA). The other key collaborators are the Cards & Personal Identification
Identity document
An identity document is any document which may be used to verify aspects of a person's personal identity. If issued in the form of a small, mostly standard-sized card, it is usually called an identity card...
Technical Committee (CPITC) under the Singapore IT Standards Committee (ITSC), Network for Electronic Transfers
Network for Electronic Transfers
The Network for Electronic Transfers Pte Ltd was founded in 1985 to operate and manage an online debit payment system pioneering Singapore's shift to a cashless society. It has since grown to a multi-service organisation, providing a comprehensive range of electronic payment services...
(NETS) and EZ-Link Pte Ltd
EZ-Link
The EZ-Link card is a contactless smart card based on the Sony FeliCa smartcard technology and used for the payment of public transportation fares in Singapore, with limited use in the small payments retail sector...
(Ez-Link). CEPAS was published by SPRING Singapore as SS 518 and was officially launched during the CEPAS Launch & Next Generation e-Payment seminar on 27 June 2006, held at Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Current and future payment landscape
The current micro-payment landscape in Singapore is fragmented with different standards, with two main players, NETS and EZ-Link. EZ-Link controls the transit space and NETS controls the motoring (ERP, parking) space. NETS also dominates the retail space, with EZ-Link having limited presence. Cards and readers from both providers cannot currently interoperate and consumers hold different cards for payment of different services and goods.CEPAS aims to open and level the micro-payment playing field. For example, NETS card holders will be able to use their cards to pay for transit and EZ-Link card holders for retail and motoring payments. For merchants, the overall operation cost is intended to be lower and the market space larger.
CEPAS-compliant EZ-Link cards have been available for sale from 29th December 2008.