Ripple Gets OK to Expand Payments Business in Singapore

Blockchain company Ripple is set to expand its payments services in Singapore.

The company announced Monday (Dec. 1) that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) had approved an expanded scope of payment activities for the major payment institution (MPI) license held by its Singapore subsidiary.

This approval, Ripple said, makes the company one of the world’s only blockchain-enabled institutions with an MPI license and allows it to broaden its payment offerings.

“Ripple has always taken a regulation-first approach and Singapore is proof that innovation thrives when rules are clear,” Monica Long, Ripple’s president, said in a news release. “This expanded license strengthens our ability to continue investing in Singapore and to build the infrastructure financial institutions need to move money efficiently, quickly, and safely.”

The release noted that Singapore has been key to Ripple’s global operations since the company established its Asia Pacific headquarters there in 2017.

In 2023, CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the company would increase its hiring in its region, as he found it more crypto-friendly than the US. While attitudes have changed in America, Ripple noted in its release Monday that Singapore had been a leader in developing “a forward-looking regulatory framework” for crypto assets.

“The Asia Pacific region leads the world in real digital asset usage, with on-chain activity up roughly 70% year-over-year. Singapore sits at the center of that growth,” said Fiona Murray, Ripple vice president and managing director, Asia Pacific. “With this expanded scope of payment activities, we can better support the institutions driving that growth by offering a broad suite of regulated payment services, bringing faster, more efficient payments to our customers.”

The announcement came days after Ripple said its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin was positioned for further expansion across the Middle East after getting approval from Abu Dhabi’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA). This approval allows the coin to be used within ADGM, the global financial center of Abu Dhabi.

Also last month, Ripple announced that it achieved a valuation of $40 billion after landing an investment of $500 million. The company said at the time that it was in the middle of a “record year of growth” and that RLUSD was among the stablecoins being adopted by institutions for uses like treasury payments and collateral.