Regulations for E-wallets

MAS sets out in the consultation paper below the proposed amendments to limits currently imposed on each personal payment account that contains e money (“e-wallet”) issued by Major Payment Institutions. MAS invites comments from interested parties on the proposals set out in the consultation paper.

CURRENT CAP ON E-WALLETS

According to MAS (Consultation Paper)
last revised October 2022

2.1 Under the PS Act, the following limits currently apply on each e-wallet issued by MPIs: The maximum amount of funds that can be held at any given time is set at $5,000 (“stock cap”); The maximum total outflow over a rolling 12-month period is capped at $30,000 (“flow cap”).

2.2 In response to industry feedback, exemptions to the stock cap and flow cap (collectively, the “caps”) were introduced, to facilitate specific user needs:

Users are allowed to load more than $5,000 into their e-wallets on an intra-day basis, provided the end-of-day balance is below $5,000;

Funds that are transferred into the user’s own or designated local bank accounts, or to his/her own overseas bank account, are excluded from being counted towards the flow cap.

2.3 Where a user has multiple accounts with the same MPI, all of his/her accounts will need to be aggregated for the purposes of complying with the caps i.e. the caps are computed on a “per user, per payment institution” basis.

PROPOSED REVISION TO CAPS ON PERSONAL E-WALLETS

According to MAS (Consultation Paper)
last revised October 2022

2.6 MAS conducted a survey with e-wallet account issuance service providers (“ewallet issuers”), and collated feedback from payment service users. We found that payment service users have benefitted from e-wallet issuers’ product offerings, such as ewallet products that facilitate travel spending and overseas remittance, and lower transaction costs offered by some e-wallet issuers. To facilitate greater customer convenience and innovation in the e-payments landscape, MAS proposesto raise the caps as follows:

Raise the stock cap from $5,000 to $20,000; and

Raise the flow cap from $30,000 to $100,000;

2.7 In calibrating these proposals, MAS studied the potential impact of revised caps to financial system stability. The caps are relevant to mitigating potential significant outflows from bank deposits to non-bank e-wallets. Nonetheless, scenario projections based on historical consumer usage statistics indicate that the financial stability objectives can still be met even with the higher proposed caps.

2.8 MAS notes that raising the caps could increase funds held or transferred through personal e-wallets and consequently potential losses incurred through scams that involve e-wallets. E-wallet issuers should take this risk into account and assess if their anti-scam controls should be strengthened. In that regard, MAS will continue to work closely with the industry to ensure that they implement robust anti-scam controls that are commensurate with their business and risk profiles.

Proposed amendments for e-wallets