Singapore grants city-state’s first crypto-license to FOMO Pay

Singapore has made significant strides in regulatory proactiveness as far as the cryptocurrency industry is concerned. One of the nation’s largest payment providers in the country, FOMO Pay, has now become the first to receive a license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The license in question relates to the provision of Digital Payment Token Services (DPTS).

According to the company’s announcement, it has been granted licenses to conduct different regulated financial activities in the city-state. DPTS licensing will allow FOMO Pay to provide digital payment token transactions to its clients, including cryptocurrencies and Singapore’s future central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Through the other two licenses, Merchant Acquisition Service and Domestic Money Transfer Service, merchants will be able to leverage FOMO Pay’s services to accept and process payment transactions online and offline. FOMO Pay will additionally be able to conduct local money transfer services in Singapore.

This new development has brought the company’s total licensing tally to four of the seven regulated activities under the Payment Services Act. It had previously received a cross-border transfer services license from MAS. The company believes it will be able to expand the payment services it provides to clients. These will include both large corporations and small and medium enterprises.

In a statement, Louis Liu, CEO and Founder of FOMO Pay, said,

“We are proud to be recognised as a leading FinTech company in Singapore and I am proud of our team’s relentless efforts to establish the compliance framework, policies, procedures and risk management systems which have made this happen.”

Highlighting the company’s compliance efforts, she added,

“We will continue to work closely with regulators and partners to ensure and facilitate safe practices for our client’s payment needs.”

FOMO Pay is now one of the largest digital payment providers in Singapore, with over 10,000 merchant clients. These range across various industries like retail, telecom, tourism and hospitality, food and beverage (F&B), education, and e-commerce.

As a part of its recent proactive developments and partnerships in the digital payments sector, it partnered with OCBC Bank in Malaysia to develop the country’s first merchant cross-border QR code collection service.

Under a new law enacted in January 2020, providers of digital token payment services, including cryptocurrency exchanges, need to be licensed. Top exchanges like Binance, Coinbase, and Gemini have currently been granted an exemption until the licensing arrangements are processed.

What’s more, a recent report claimed that Singapore’s central bank told “several” digital payments service providers that they will be granted licenses to operate in the city-state.