Card payments in Singapore are forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.2% between 2025 and 2029 to reach S$209.2 billion ($158.3 billion) by the end of the period, supported by near-universal access to banking services, wide merchant acceptance and rising use of contactless cards, data and analytics firm GlobalData said.
The value of card payments in Singapore rose 6.2% year-on-year to S$158.2 billion ($119.6 billion) in 2025, driven by stronger consumer spending, the continued expansion of e-commerce and broader acceptance of contactless payments, according to GlobalData’s Payment Cards Analytics.
“Singapore’s payment card market is expanding steadily on the back of a highly banked population, a developed card network and targeted government and bank initiatives that encourage merchants and consumers to favour card-based transactions,” said Ravi Sharma, lead banking and payments analyst at GlobalData.
He added that innovation in contactless solutions and the widening acceptance of cards, including among hawker centres and small merchants, have supported sustained growth in card-based payments.
Government-backed initiatives have played a role in expanding merchant acceptance, particularly among small and medium-sized enterprises.
Subsidy programmes that help offset the cost of point-of-sale installations have lowered barriers for retailers and service providers to adopt card payment technologies, broadening the overall acceptance footprint.
Debit cards remained an important component of the market in 2025, accounting for 32.4% of total card payment value, or S$51.2 billion ($38.7 billion), GlobalData said.
Financial inclusion initiatives and the availability of low-cost basic bank accounts from major lenders have helped ensure a large base of debit card users and steady growth in debit transactions.
Sharma said debit card usage has also been supported by strong domestic acceptance through Singapore’s local payment network NETS, which links partner banks to more than 150,000 acceptance points nationwide and supports contactless payments via its FlashPay functionality.
Credit and charge cards dominated the Singapore card payments market, representing 67.6% of total payment value in 2025.
Growth in this segment has been underpinned by consumer preference for value-added features such as rewards, cashback and instalment plans, which have driven faster growth in credit card spending compared with debit.
GlobalData said Singapore’s card payments market is expected to continue benefiting from sustained financial inclusion efforts, a well-developed payments infrastructure and the ongoing shift toward electronic and contactless payments.
While geopolitical and trade-related uncertainties could pose risks, expanding acceptance networks and the steady migration away from cash are expected to underpin healthy growth in card transaction values through 2029.
Even as real-time account-to-account transfers and QR schemes expand in Southeast Asia, Singapore’s forecast suggests cards remain the “default” for everyday retail, especially where rewards, chargeback protections and instalment features influence consumer choice.
The bigger competitive battleground may be at the margin: winning smaller merchants, hawker-style outlets and micro-SMEs, where acceptance costs and simple onboarding can still determine whether spend lands on cards or alternative rails.