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Paying Salaries & CPF contributions

Updated over a month ago

Paying local employees

If your employee has a local bank account, salary payments can be made via FAST or GIRO transfers directly from your business account.

Here are the key differences:

  • FAST Transfers: Same-day, quick salary payments

  • GIRO Transfers: Scheduled payments tagged with SAL or SALA transaction code

Aspire supports both payment options from your SGD account:

FAST Transfers

GIRO Transfers

Fees

Individual transfers: Free

Batch transfers: $0.50 SGD per transfer

$0.20 SGD per transfer

Timeframe

Within 2 hours

Within 4-5 days

Paying overseas employees

Employers can pay overseas employees in their local currency (available for selected countries) or via cross-border transfers from a business bank account.

Payment methods:

  1. International bank transfers (SWIFT)

  2. Multi-currency business accounts

  3. Fintech & payment platforms (eg. Aspire)

  4. Payroll service providers (eg. Deel, Multiplier, Remote)

Aspire supports international transfers to 30+ countries at mid-market FX rates and competitive fees.

Here’s a summary of the fees for top destination countries:

Aspire Currency Account

Destination Country

Destination Currency

Transfer Fees

Timeframe (business days)

USD

Indonesia

IDR

  • Local banks: Free*

  • SWIFT: From $15 USD

  • Local: 1-2 days

  • SWIFT: 3-5 days

USD

Malaysia

MYR

  • Local banks: Free*

  • SWIFT: From $15 USD

  • Local: 1-2 days

  • SWIFT: 3-5 days

USD

Philippines

PHP

  • Local banks: Free*

  • SWIFT: From $15 USD

  • Local: 1-2 days

  • SWIFT: 3-5 days

USD

Thailand

THB

From $15 USD

3-5 days

USD

All countries

USD

From $15 USD

3-5 days

SGD

Indonesia

IDR

Standard Wise fees, from $0.30 SGD

1-2 days

SGD

Malaysia

MYR

Standard Wise fees, from $0.30 SGD

1-2 days

SGD

Philippines

PHP

Standard Wise fees, from $0.30 SGD

1-2 days

SGD

Thailand

THB

Standard Wise fees, from $0.30 SGD

1-2 days

SGD

All countries

USD

Standard Wise fees, from $0.30 SGD

4-5 days

*You can make free local transfers from 19 countries from your Aspire USD account. Refer to this guide: Guide to Sending Local Transfers from Aspire USD Account

Paying salaries and CPF contributions on Aspire

Admin users, as well as Finance with transfer rights and Finance with submit-only rights users that have been granted “Payroll” permission can make payroll batch transfers with the Aspire payroll feature.

How to make a local payroll transfer from your Aspire SGD account

To make a local payroll transfer from your Aspire SGD account, you may refer to the articles below:

How to make a USD payroll transfer from your Aspire USD account

To make a USD payroll transfer from your Aspire USD account, you may refer to the article below:

How to make an international payroll transfer from your Aspire SGD account

To make an international payroll transfer from your Aspire SGD account, you may refer to the article below:

How to make a FX payroll transfer from your Aspire USD account

To make an FX payroll transfer from your Aspire USD account, you may refer to the article below:

Paying CPF

To pay CPF contributions via PayNow, you may refer to the article below:

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