SINGAPORE (May 30): OCBC Bank has announced the launch of its first standalone mobile payments app, OCBC Pay Anyone, which is now available for download at the Apple and Google Play mobile app stores.

This brings together all OCBC Pay Anyone services and enhancements – namely peer-to-peer e-payments, QR code payments, and access to OCBC Pay Anyone integrated with Apple iPhone’s Siri and iMessage – into a one-stop access to e-payments.

With the app, customers can scan QR codes at close to 2,500 NETS terminals belonging to more than 1,000 participating merchants, to pay for their purchases directly from their OCBC Bank account by scanning QR codes on the NETS terminals or on printed receipts.

After the transaction has been authenticated with a fingerprint, the payment is immediately deducted from the purchaser’s bank account and paid to the merchant through NETS, unlike mobile wallets which require additional steps to top-up the mobile wallet using a bank account.

OCBC estimates that by the end of the year, its customers will be able to make QR code payments at more than 50,000 NETS terminals island wide.

“OCBC Pay Anyone has been a favourite payment service among our customers, who have embraced the movement away from cash and increasingly adopted paying other individuals using just phone numbers. OCBC Pay Anyone payment volumes have increased 10 times since May last year,” says OCBC Bank’s head of e-business, Pranav Seth, in a press release on Tuesday.

“Now, we want to bring the same convenience to paying for your regular shopping and meals using QR codes, so we decided to consolidate all of our OCBC Pay Anyone payment services into a standalone mobile app to bring greater convenience to our customers,” he adds.

“I believe the pick-up of QR code cashless payments will be strong given the increasing acceptance rate of cashless payments in general over the years. We will continue to push the boundaries in mobile payments and move the needle in becoming a cashless society.”

As at 1.13pm, shares of OCBC are trading 6 Singapore cents lower at S$10.38.