Thunes approved for payments licence in Singapore

Thunes, a global cross-border payments network has secured regulatory approval, conditional on fulfilling final procedural formalities, from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for payments services directly in Singapore. The licence extends Thunes’ capabilities to provide global payments solutions for customers on its payment network, which already spans across more than 80 countries.

Thunes was previously only authorised to conduct payment services with established, licensed financial institutions such as DBS Bank, Citibank, Grab, and SingTel in Singapore. Before the MAS approval, Thunes had been operating its global payments business via regulatory oversight from the UK Financial Conduct Authority. With this licence, Thunes will be able to offer its interoperable membership network and directly onboard any local players in the digital payments ecosystem to facilitate the movement of funds. Additionally, Thunes’ status as a regulated entity under Singapore’s upcoming Payment Services Act puts the company in good stead to expand into additional payment offerings.

“With the Payment Services Act entering into force early next year, we look forward to expanding our range of services provided on our global interoperable membership network to better serve the needs of financial institutions and corporates” said Peter de Caluwe, executive chairman of Thunes. “Given Singapore’s key status as a global trade and fintech hub, the new licensing arrangement will not only allow us to expand our payment offerings to more financial institutions and corporates, but also create additional possibilities for local businesses seeking to venture abroad.”

The announcement of the remittance license follows its recent partnership announcement with Global eTrade Services (GeTS), a global trade platform company that uses Thunes’ platform to enable the flow of funds in and out of Southeast Asia. It also follows recent approval to operate in the US and China.