FOMO Pay, a Singapore-based fintech company, announced today that it has obtained a license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to offer Digital Payment Token Service — the first such approval out of 170 applicants for the city-state that’s rapidly becoming a global crypto hub.
Fast facts
- FOMO Pay said it had been granted, starting today, new licenses from Singapore to operate three regulated activities — Merchant Acquisition Service, Domestic Money Transfer Service and Digital Payment Token (DPT) Service, which applies to cryptocurrencies.
- A DPT Service license permits its holder to facilitate transactions with digital payment tokens, together with cryptocurrencies and Singapore’s future central bank digital currency (CBDC). The opposite two licenses will allow FOMO Pay to conduct native cash switch providers in Singapore in addition to process funds for merchants online and offline.
- With the licenses, FOMO Pay will be able to conduct four out of seven regulated activities under the Payment Services Act (PS Act). The corporate had earlier obtained a Cross-border Money Transfer Service license. The corporate says the licenses will assist it to increase its suite of cost providers for its clients — which include large firms in addition to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) — in Singapore and the region.
- FOMO Pay was founded in 2015 and started by helping online and offline merchants to connect with digital payment strategies, together with e-wallets and bank cards. Immediately, the corporate serves over 10,000 retailers in retail, telecom, tourism and hospitality, food and beverage (F&B), education and e-commerce.
- FOMO Pay’s license to offer digital cost token service follows a collection of in-principal approval notifications by Singapore to applicants such as Australian cryptocurrency exchange Independent Reserve and DBS Vickers, the brokerage arm of Singapore’s DBS Bank. Under a law that came into impact in January 2020, suppliers of digital token payment services — including cryptocurrency exchanges — must be licensed. According to the Financial Authority of Singapore, 170 license applications by digital payment token service providers have been submitted. Cryptocurrency exchanges are reminiscent of Binance, Coinbase and Gemini currently operate in Singapore beneath an exemption as a part of transitional preparations. The exemption permits entities to offer providers while their license functions are being processed.
- In response to the MAS website, only one Major Payment Institution license to provide DPT Service has been granted as of publishing time.