WEX V-Cards Expand Into Singapore

WEX’s virtual payment technologies are expanding across Asia.

The company announced Sunday (April 2) that it will now be able to issue virtual cards in Singapore as it looks to expand across Asia. WEX already operates across Hong Kong and Thailand, it said.

“We are proud to have achieved this important milestone to support the growth of the WEX virtual product in the Asia-Pacific region,” said WEX SVP and GM for Virtual Payments Jim Pratt in a statement. “Singapore is an important market for us, and coupled with the fact that it is a global financial center, this endorsement marks our commitment to the region.”

According to WEX Managing Director for Asia-Pacific Jeff Ames, WEX has secured an issuing license in Singapore and will continue to focus on growth both in the country and across Asia-Pacific.

The company has also been building its presence in Latin America, where last year it announced a partnership with corporate travel and expense management company Argo, which operates across Brazil and Mexico. At that time, WEX had also identified Latin America (LATAM) as what the firm’s LATAM CEO José Roberto Kracochansky described as “one of the most promising regions in travel payments and … an untapped market for VCN.”

But Singapore has been a particularly large target for FinTech companies as recent regulations in the country aim to promote innovation in this space. Last year, Singapore’s financial regulator said it would look to reform and streamline existing regulations related to payments systems and remittance businesses, aiming to create a more cohesive regulatory framework to enable FinTech innovation.

Under new rules, the nation would no longer require new businesses to obtain multiple licenses for various payments services and would instead have to obtain a single one.