By Charissa Yong

DBS Bank launched a new initiative yesterday that allows Giro applications to be made at 180 AXS stations islandwide.

The service, known as xDDA, can shorten the application process from three weeks on average to as little as a day.

To apply for Giro, consumers usually complete a form and mail it to the billing organisation, which then sends the form to the customer's bank for validation and processing.

The xDDA process is much simpler. Just by using his ATM card and PIN at an AXS station, a DBS/POSB customer is able to sign up for Giro with a billing organisation.

DBS can process and approve the application on the spot and issue an 'approved' message. So far, only three organisations are on the scheme - DBS credit cards, and the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras) and StarHub for certain payments.

However, DBS expects to get between 15 and 20 billing companies, including utility companies and insurers, on board by the end of the year. The service will also be extended to all 600 AXS machines by the year's end.

The new process saves time for consumers while companies can reduce Giro paperwork and start collecting payments earlier.

Mr Rajan Raju, head of the DBS consumer banking group, said xDDA will let customers 'avoid monthly hassles and be more confident that the billing organisation will provide accurate, timely bills'.

Mr Chow Yew Tee, StarHub's finance billing vice-president, sees the ease of xDDA as a big draw.

'This opens up an additional channel for StarHub Mobile customers to sign up for Giro, and allows them to avoid the hassle and delays associated with manual applications,' he said.

Financial consultant Serene Ho, who deals with insurance, welcomes the reduced waiting time: 'There have been some cases, few and far between, where our clients have their payments deducted twice while they change to Giro payments. But with xDDA this need not happen again.'

Giro payments are popular here. As a bank, DBS processes an average of 75,000 paper applications a month from billing organisations.

StarHub and Iras receive about 1,000 and 5,000 paper applications respectively.

'Singapore is not a cashless society yet, but is increasingly going the electronic way,' said Mr Raju.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.