SINGAPORE: Following Member of Parliament Tin Pei Ling’s announcement on Monday( Oct 2 ) that she will oversee strategic partnerships and business development at the financial institution, DCS Card Centre, formerly known as Diners Club Singapore, is once again in the spotlight.
Seven decades after drawing attention from the public and raising concerns about a potential conflict of interest, the MP announced in August that she would be leaving her job at Grab.
In order to satisfy the shifting expectations of consumers, retailers, and firms, DCS is rebranding itself after decades of losing market share to rivals like American Express.
DCS Card Center: What is it?
DCS has a long history in Singapore, having started out as an exclusive operator andnbsp of Diners Club International, an global provider of payment services for the United States.
According to CEO Karen Low of & nbsp in a press release released in August of this year,” Diners Club Singapore was truly one of the pioneers of contactless payments in Singapore when it launched the second charge card back in 1973.” & nbsp,
Singapore had 28, 000 Diners Club card holders at the time, according to a 1989 statement in The Business Times, but as other people like Visa advanced with more alluring offers and benefits, Singapore’s market share began to decline in the 1990s and 2000s. & nbsp,
Electronic payment solutions provider & nbsp, Ezy Net, Diners Club Singapore, and Malaysian investment holding company Johan Holdings for S$ 136 million( US$ 725.4 million ) were all fully acquired by Singapore in July 2021. & nbsp,
According to The Edge Malaysia website, & nbsp, Diners Club Singapore, and its parent company DINersPay DPPL collectively lost$ 656, 000 US in 2018,$ 5.2 million in 2019, and$ 3.04 million USD in 2020 before the sale. & nbsp,
Diners Club Singapore was renamed DCS Card Center in October 2022, & nbsp, with the company claiming it had” evolved to a fintech that will lead the next payment frontiers with future-ready payment solutions.”
The pin is why?
Based on repayment methods at Singapore financial points-of-sale in 2022, Singapore has the highest borrowing rate of contactless payments in Southeast Asia, at 97 percent, according to a study by the European statistics company Statista. & nbsp,
The level of competition in this area presents difficulties for DCS Card Center, and Ms. Tin has stated that she will assist in driving potential sector growth in her fresh position.
Ms. Low stated in an interview with Tech in Asia in August of this year that she plans to increase Singapore’s 300,000-strong card center by a factor of two within the next two decades. & nbsp,
In order to achieve this, DCS has expanded the reach of its cards issue to include other, more well-known, foreign payment systems, such as Union Pay, Visa, and Mastercard, with plans to add JCB.
It will also offer card-obtaining services for Alipay, Singapore Quick Response Code ( SGQR ), and WeChat Pay, and it will continue to be Singapore’s sole provider of Diners Club cards.
It had recently increased the number of cards it offered by issuing co-brand credit cards with companies like VICOM and Sheng Shiong and Don Donki.