Singapore to scrap PayNow nickname feature on 6 June to combat impersonation scams

Singapore will discontinue the PayNow nickname feature for retail users from 6 June 2026 as part of efforts to strengthen protection against impersonation scams, the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) announced on Wednesday, 29 April 2026.

Under the change, retail users will no longer be able to set customised display names on their PayNow accounts. Instead, only selected letters of a payee's registered account name with their financial institution will be shown to payers during transactions.

ABS said the move responds directly to the current scam landscape, in which fraudsters have exploited the nickname feature to impersonate trusted individuals or established entities and deceive victims into transferring funds to fraudulent accounts.

Why the nickname feature is being removed

The nickname feature has been available since PayNow's launch in 2017. It was originally introduced to address privacy concerns among users who preferred not to display their full registered names when receiving payments via mobile numbers or national identity card numbers.

Under the existing system, a retail customer's registered account name is displayed to the payer by default unless the customer sets a nickname. Scammers exploited this by registering PayNow accounts and assigning nicknames that mirrored the names of legitimate organisations or individuals they sought to impersonate.

This allowed them to present convincing facades when soliciting payments or when victims attempted to verify transfer details before sending funds.

ABS stated that by removing the nickname feature, the system will display only verified, registered account names, significantly reducing scammers' ability to masquerade as legitimate entities.

How the new display system will work

From 6 June 2026, all PayNow display names for retail users will be automatically updated to reflect selected letters of a payee's registered account name. The remaining characters in the name will be replaced with the letter "X" to prevent full disclosure of the registered name and to guard against name harvesting through PayNow's lookup function.

The naming logic will be centrally applied based on industry best practices and consumer feedback to ensure consistency across the system. Users will not be able to customise or define which letters appear in their display name.

ABS said the approach is designed to balance the use of real names as a safeguard against account impersonation while remaining mindful of privacy considerations. No action is required from customers, and all other aspects of sending and receiving money via PayNow will remain unchanged.

The changes apply to all PayNow payment transfers, including those made through Scan to Pay. Joint account holders will also have their PayNow display names updated automatically based on registered joint account name records.

ABS Director Ong-Ang Ai Boon said the change was essential given evolving fraud patterns.

"Safeguarding consumers against scams is a top priority for the industry. While PayNow has made everyday payments more convenient, it is equally important that users can transact with confidence. Discontinuing the nickname feature removes an avenue that scammers can exploit while safeguarding customer privacy. This enhancement will help ensure that PayNow users continue to enjoy a secure and trusted payments experience," she said.

Corporate accounts unaffected

Businesses that use PayNow to receive payments via their Unique Entity Number (UEN) are not affected by the change. Such entities do not have access to the nickname feature and cannot modify their registered account names. The full registered account names of corporate payees will continue to be displayed to payers as before.

When a payer transfers funds to a corporate payee, whether as an individual or a business, they will continue to see the full registered account name of the receiving company. The partial masking of names applies only to retail payees.

Cross-border PayNow transactions via linked schemes such as PayNow-DuitNow and PayNow-PromptPay are also unaffected by the 6 June change. Under those cross-border linkages, selected letters of a retail payee's name are already displayed to payers, with other characters replaced by an asterisk symbol.

ABS noted that when a payer initiates a transfer, their own full account name will continue to appear in the payee's bank statement and transaction records. This reflects standard practice across major payment schemes, supporting business use cases that require validation of a payer's identity, as well as assisting in the resolution of disputes.