Singapore to implement single licence requirement for payment firms

It launched a second public consultation for the policy.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) launched the second consultation on its proposed payments regulatory framework after making revisions in the Payment Services Bill.

After the first public consultation, the regulator said payment firms will only need to hold one licence under a single regulatory framework to conduct any or all specified payment activities.

Only payment activities that face customers or merchants, process funds or acquire transactions, and pose relevant regulatory concerns will need to be licenced.

Moreover, the new framework will expand the scope of regulation to include domestic money transfers, merchant acquisition, and the purchase and sale of virtual currencies.

"To help ensure that the expanded scope of regulation is not onerous, the Bill will differentiate regulatory requirements according to the risks that specific payment activities pose rather than apply a uniform set of regulations on all payment service providers," MAS said.

The second public consultation will run from 21 November 2017 to 8 January 2018. MAS also made public consultation papers and policy highlights available on their website.