MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore)
Singapore’s central bank and integrated financial regulator. It licenses payment institutions under the Payment Services Act 2019 and publishes the register of who holds which licence.
Why it matters to a merchant
MAS matters to a merchant in one concrete way: it publishes a register, and that register is checkable in under a minute. Any claim a provider makes about being licensed can be verified against the regulator's own list rather than against the provider's website — which is the difference between a claim and a fact, and it is the cheapest piece of due diligence available in this market.
Where this comes up
Pages on this site that deal with this in context:
- The best payment gateway in Singapore is the wrong question
- How to check a payment provider is actually licensed
- How to choose a payment acquirer in Singapore
- Who can enable Alipay+ and WeChat Pay for a Singapore merchant
- How to accept WeChat Pay and Alipay in Singapore
- Acquirer, gateway, PSP: what the words actually mean
Related terms
In this section: Licensing and regulation in Singapore