SINGAPORE - Chinese banks - Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) - have been added to the list of banks offering PayNow on Monday, making it a total of nine banks offering the peer-to-peer funds transfer service to consumers in Singapore, the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) said.

The banks have joined the ranks of Citibank Singapore, DBS Bank/POSB, HSBC, Maybank, OCBC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and United Overseas Bank as participating banks of the service.

PayNow enables customers of participating banks to send and receive Singapore dollar funds from one bank to another through Fast And Secure Transfers (FAST) using just their mobile number or Singapore NRIC (national registration identity card) or FIN (foreign identification number).

As at March 31, there have been more than 1.2 million PayNow registrations and over S$470 million transferred via PayNow, the ABS said.

The association will continue to work with the industry to promote PayNow as a convenient and secure means to transfer funds between consumers, it added.