When it comes to collecting and making payments, most of us would be familiar with the direct debit system of GIRO. 

Since 1984, GIRO has been widely used by businesses, public institutions and government bodies to collect payments – whether recurring or one-off – from their customers. 

However, in recent years, GIRO has seen its dominance in the local payments and collections scene whittled away by the convenience of credit cards. 

After all, despite their comparatively higher transaction costs, there’s no denying the ease and convenience of setting up credit cards for recurring billings

However, all this is set to change with the introduction of eGIRO. Launched on 8 November 2021, eGIRO is the modern update to the established and familiar GIRO system. 

In this article, we take a look at what eGIRO is all about, what are its uses and how your organisation can get started using it today. 

What is eGIRO? 

To understand what eGIRO is, we have to first look at what traditional GIRO does. 

The traditional GIRO system – short for General Interbank Recurring Order – was introduced more than 20 years ago as a low-cost means to collect payments. 

In essence, GIRO is a tripartite mechanism between billing organisations (BOs), customers and the bank, where customers authorise a BO to collect payments from their bank accounts, and the banks act as intermediaries to effect authorised GIRO deductions.

However, GIRO’s current paper based applications are a major hassle for both BOs and customers. The current traditional GIRO application process is a manually intensive process that can take 3 weeks or more to set up before the first deduction even takes place.

With eGIRO, that is no longer the case. 

eGIRO is a joint initiative of the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) and 8 major banks in Singapore – with support from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) – to transform the GIRO system for the digital age. 

With the launch of eGIRO, customers will now be able to apply for electronic direct debit authorisation on the websites of participating BOs. All they need to do is specify their designated bank for the payment through eGIRO.  

Adapting to Modern Times

The introduction of eGIRO is a timely one and in line with Singapore’s vision of being a Smart Nation and international financial hub. It is also a beneficial development for both consumers and businesses. 

For consumers, many are embracing digital payments in a big way, and expect payment systems to be fast, efficient and convenient above all. eGIRO makes that all possible by reducing GIRO application processing turnaround time from many weeks to as fast as a few minutes for a typical consumer.

Once an eGIRO direct debit mandate is set up, consumers need only ensure sufficient funds in their bank accounts for payment deductions to go through. 

For businesses, eGIRO enables faster payment collection cycles with better process efficiency. This is incredibly important as getting paid on time helps businesses maintain their critical cash flow. With less manual processing, this also frees up manpower and resources for more important parts of the business. 

In addition, eGIRO can be customised to the specific collection cycles of individual businesses, while providing greater transaction cost savings compared to credit card payment systems. 

Is Your Business Looking To Get Started With eGIRO?

While the eGIRO platform is supported by 8 major banks, only 13 billing organisations are offering eGIRO as an option to their customers at launch.

SGeBiz has been selected to be part of this group of 13 billing organisations, providing its service as a payments aggregator. SGeBiz offers its EzyPayment eGIRO business solution as a payment collection option for customers in the B2B and B2C space.  

SGeBIZ is the best – and leading – eGIRO payments aggregator around. 

We are a MAS licensed Major Payments Institution and we have been proudly serving thousands of Singapore businesses since 2014. 

Solve Your Collections Issues

With our EzyPayment eGIRO platform, businesses can sign up and start offering eGIRO right away. With collecting being such an essential aspect for all businesses, there’s no reason not to switch to eGIRO today. 

EzyPayment eGIRO streamlines invoice reconciliation and digitalises the process. This helps to meaningfully reduce human intervention and makes the overall finance management process much leaner and more efficient  

It’s time to get started with the most convenient and seamless singular-interface eGIRO platform around with SGeBIZ. 

Start by applying here.