Regulations for E-wallets

As an e-wallet service provider, should I apply for a Standard Payment Institution (SPI) or a Major Payment Institution (MPI)?


As long as your business involves the conduct of a regulated payment activity (which involves more than just conducting a money-changing service), you should apply for either a Standard Payment Institution Licence (SPI) or Major Payment Institution Licence (MPI). 

Whether you would then apply for an SPI or MPI depends on the whether you will be conducting payment services below the specified thresholds or not. 

According to MAS (Pages)
last revised on 23 Sep 2021

Payment service providers can conduct multiple payment services under one licence. There are three types of licences that payment service providers can hold to provide the payment services above:

Money-Changing Licence
Money-Changing licensees are only able to conduct money-changing services. 

Standard Payment Institution Licence
Standard Payment Institutions are able to conduct multiple payment services below specified thresholds. 

Major Payment Institution Licence
Major Payment Institutions are able to conduct multiple payment services without any limits on transaction volume or float. 

According to MAS (Pages)
last revised on 26 Jun 2020

The thresholds are set out in section 6(5) of the PS Act. In summary, these are:

    • S$3 million monthly transactions for any payment service (other than e-money account issuance and money-changing services).

    • S$6 million monthly transactions for two or more payment services (other than e-money account issuance and money-changing services).

    • S$5 million of daily outstanding e-money

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