Date : 11 November 2009
Issued By : Corporate Communications Division - People’s Association

The People’s Association (PA) has announced on 25 August 2009 on a tripartite partnership with EZ-Link Pte Ltd and PaymentLink Pte Ltd (formerly known as QB Pte Ltd) to enhance the PA Membership Card, the PAssion Card, into a Contactless e-Purse Applications (CEPAS) compliant PAssion ez-link Card by the end of the year.  On 11 November 2009, the PA launched the PAssion ez-link Card at Raffles Xchange.

2                 At the Launch, PA also announced the partnership with Dairy Farm Singapore group (DFS) and SMRT Corporation Ltd (SMRT) to introduce new and exciting benefits for PAssion ez-link Card Members.

3                 Dairy Farm Singapore, Singapore's leading retail group, with a major presence in the food as well as health and beauty sectors, will partner PA from 1 April 2010 in the PAssion ez-link Card Programme. Card Members will enjoy a host of exciting privileges at retail banners under DFS such as Cold Storage, Market Place and Shop N Save supermarkets; Giant hypermarkets and Guardian Health & Beauty stores.  Members can earn loyalty points when they use this card at DFS’ stores and redeem the points for products through a host of exclusive promotions which may include price discounting on a basket of items. In addition, there will also be special promotional events only for PAssion ez-link Card Members.          

4                 As the new PAssion ez-link Card is a CEPAS compliant card, it enables the payment of transit services such as train rides. Thus, to bring even more convenience and benefits to PAssion ez-link Card Members who use public transport like the MRT trains frequently, they will soon find themselves enjoying greater savings with SMRT Corporation. SMRT is collaborating with the PA to open up more benefits and privileges for PAssion ez-link Card Members. At all SMRT Xchanges, starting with Raffles Xchange, PAssion ez-link Card Members will enjoy attractive benefits and privileges.  The list of participating tenants will be available online at www.passioncard.com.sg. In addition, PAssion ez-link Card Members will also enjoy special offers when they service their vehicles at SMRT Automotives, and when they take an SMRT taxi. SMRT Taxis is the first taxi operator to provide special offers to PAssion ez-link Card Members, and the only operator to allow payment using ez-link cards. Card Members will also enjoy double chances for SMRT promotion programmes like the current “Ride Free with SMRT”, where they stand to win 3-year free rides on SMRT trains and buses, and promotions and lucky draws at SMRT Xchanges.

5                 Chief Executive Director of PA, Mr Tan Boon Huat said: “The launch of the new PAssion ez-link Card will be very exciting for our PAssion ez-link Card Members.  Together with our partners EZ-Link Pte Ltd and PaymentLink Pte Ltd, we are pleased to welcome our new partners, Dairy Farm Singapore group and SMRT Corporation Ltd together to bring the membership value of new PAssion ez-link Card to a higher level. We believe that through these new collaboration, the winners will ultimately be our members. PA hopes that we can reach out to and encourage more residents from all walks of life to take up our membership and join us on our lifestyle courses, interest groups, activities and other major events like Chingay Parade. Through participation, members can make friends with one another, have fun together in good times and look out for one another in times of needs. We believe that the bonds fostered will help to build a stronger and more resilient community.”

6                 Commenting on this alliance Mr Jeff Shaw, Regional Director of Dairy Farm South Asia said: “We have been partnering People’s Association at various community events and we are honoured to join them in supporting the new PAssion ez-link Card. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to reach out to, and offer our diverse services to the public. The PAssion Card has a strong base of members, many of whom are already our regular shoppers. They will now get to enjoy the additional benefits of using this card while shopping at our stores.”

7                 SMRT President and CEO, Ms Saw Phaik Hwa said: “SMRT’s tie up with PA will bring added benefits to many of our commuters who are already PAssion Card Members. SMRT Xchanges are located conveniently at our stations and offer these commuters a wide mix of tenants ranging from retail stores to coffee outlets. With special offers and extra privileges offered to PAssion Card Members, this means that it is even more rewarding to travel on SMRT’s network of trains, buses and taxis than ever before.”

 8               “We are pleased to welcome Dairy Farm Singapore group and SMRT Corporation Ltd on board, and hope to work together to deliver more exciting services to our consumers. With the arrival of the much anticipated PAssion ez-link Card, consumers can now access community services and facilities, as well as transit and non-transit services with just one card. EZ-Link has also launched extra top-up terminals at 105 CCs, adding on to the existing top-up channels that include transit, non-transit channels, as well as value-adding services like EZ-Reload and EZ-Online.  To top it off, consumers will also be rewarded for using the card with the new transit point scheme. In other words, the ez-link card has moved beyond being a transit card, a retail card, or even just a community card to be the unique multi purpose card to suit all lifestyle needs,” said Mr Nicholas Lee, Executive Director of EZ-Link Pte Ltd.

9                  Group Managing Director of PaymentLink, Mr Jeremy Tan said: “We are pleased to have the opportunity to add further value for PAssion ez-link Card Members through PaymentLink’s EzRewards programme. PaymentLink currently has more than 5,000 retail points which accept concession and ez-link payment. With the rapid expansion of our retail points-of-sales that accept concession and ez-link cards, PAssion ez-link Card Members will have more opportunities to use their cards for retail payments, in addition to public transport purposes. They will thus be able to effortlessly earn and accumulate EzRewards Points to redeem for discounts and promotions and enjoy benefits and privileges tailored to their demographics and lifestyles.”
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About People’s Association
The People’s Association’s mission is to build and to bridge communities in achieving one people, one Singapore. We achieve this through our intricate network of 1,800 grassroots organisations, five Community Development Councils, the National Youth Council, National Community Leadership Institute, Outward Bound Singapore and Water-Venture. More information at www.pa.gov.sg.

About EZ-Link Pte Ltd
A subsidiary of the Land Transport Authority, EZ-Link Pte Ltd was formed on 8 January 2002. Its core business is the clearing and settlement of all ez-link card transactions generated in transit and non-transit (retail/merchant) environments, as well as the sale, distribution and overall management of ez-link cards. Prior to CEPAS, EZ-Link had issued over 10 million ez-link cards. To date, the company has sold and replaced over 5.8 million new ez-link cards which are CEPAS-compliant. This is in tandem with the government’s plan to promote cashless payments in Singapore. In line with this vision, the new ez-link card is now also accepted as a mode of payment for Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) and soon at carparks fitted with the Electronic Payment System (EPS) when used in the 2nd Generation In-vehicle Unit (2GIU).

EZ-Reload was first launched in 2003, as Auto Credit card Top-up service, in July 2009 it has been rebranded as EZ-Reload to offer a wider range of sources of funds to top-up the new adult anonymous ez-link cards which are CEPAS-compliant. They now include bank accounts, charge accounts, credit and debit card accounts. EZ-Reloads are also expanded to occur whenever there are insufficient funds in your card to make payments for transit, such as buses, trains and SMRT taxis, as well as at selected EZ-Link merchants.  

EZ-Link also introduced the FEVO card in 2009, marking the first time in Singapore that a non-bank entity is authorized to issue a pre-paid card that offers its customers an innovative payment option which has the convenience of a reloadable stored-value card that is accepted at over 28.5 million retailers and merchants around the world.  For more information, please visit www.ezlink.com.sg

About PaymentLink Pte Ltd
Formerly known as QB Pte Ltd, PaymentLink Pte Ltd is the partner of the Land Transport Authority of Singapore (“LTA”) and the exclusive partner of EZ-Link Pte Ltd for payment and loyalty services on the concession and ez-link cards respectively.

With the aim to revolutionise the way consumers pay for everyday necessities, PaymentLink works closely with all major banks, government agencies, merchants and retailers to extend the convenience offered by concession and ez-link cards to more than 5,000 non-transit PaymentLink payment points in Singapore.

PaymentLink also operates the EzRewards Programme to reward consumers for using their concession and ez-link card. For more information, please visit www.paymentlink.com.sg.

About Dairy Farm Singapore
Dairy Farm is the leading retail group in Singapore with over 685 stores islandwide.  It has strong roots in the community with a 106-year history in Singapore through home-grown Cold Storage supermarket. The group’s retail banners are all popular household names – Cold Storage, Shop N Save, Jasons and Market Place supermarkets, Giant hypermarkets, Guardian Health and Beauty and 7-Eleven.

About SMRT Corporation Ltd
SMRT Corporation Ltd is Singapore's premier multi-modal transport service provider offering integrated island-wide transport services. It delivers safe, reliable and friendly travel for commuters through its comprehensive network of 58 Mass Rapid Transit stations, 14 Light Rail stations, as well as a fleet of over 2,600 taxis and 930 buses. In addition, SMRT leverages on its experience and unique strengths to offer maintenance consultancy and project management services for railway systems, as well as commercial and advertising space within its transport infrastructure.