Fiserv secures major payment institution licence in Singapore

The approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will help Fiserv expand payment services in the country. This includes the ability to offer payment cards, merchant acquisition services and domestic and cross-border money transfer services, as well as mass payout services for firms in Singapore.

Fiserv has already established its regional headquarters in Singapore, providing solutions to some of the largest banks, fintechs, and merchants in the country and across the Asia Pacific region for over two decades.

“Fiserv has a history of payments innovation in Singapore, and we are well-positioned and committed to expand our merchant acquiring business in the country and beyond, continuing to support the merchant community with robust and secure global payments technology enabling locally relevant payment acceptance solutions that meet the demands of today’s consumer,” said Suhaib Khanyari, General Manager of ASEAN at Fiserv.

Founded in 1984 and headquartered in Wisconsin, Fiserv’s solutions are now used by more than 13,000 clients in over 80 countries worldwide. The company has also more than one-third of US financial institutions relying on its product suite for account processing solutions and expertise.

Back in 2020, Fiserv acquired the payment technology provider, First Data Corporation in a $22 billion all-stock deal. The latter is a Georgia headquartered firm, which processes $2.4 trillion each year and 2500 transactions per second. It operates as a payment technology company that handles a wide range of services including credit card processing.

The MPI license permits offering of merchant acquiring services in Singapore and will allow Fiserv to support new payment flows for its clients including cross-border funds transfer services and real-time account transfers.

MAS has recently handed out the major payment institution license to a number of crypto firms. This included MetaComp, stablecoin issuers Circle Financial and Paxos which obtained licences to operate as digital asset service providers in the country. US crypto exchange Coinbase also received approval to offer regulated digital payment token (DPT) solutions in Singapore.

The city-state’s de facto central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), has been cautious toward cryptocurrencies as it seeks to combat related money laundering and cybercrimes.