Get the hottest Fintech Hong Kong News once a month in your Inbox
KPay has received In-Principle Approval (IPA) from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for a Major Payments Institution (MPI) licence under the Payment Services Act 2019.
The approval applies to KPay’s Singapore subsidiary, KPay Merchant Service (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.
An IPA is not itself a licence. It reflects MAS’s assessment that a licence may be issued once the applicant meets specified conditions, provided no material adverse developments arise in the meantime, and MAS reserves the right to rescind it.
Subject to fulfilling those conditions, the MPI licence would let KPay offer a broader range of regulated payment services in Singapore, including merchant acquisition and domestic and cross-border money transfers.
KPay has grown to serve more than 10,000 SME merchants in Singapore since establishing operations there in 2022, concentrated in the food and beverage and retail sectors.
Its Singapore platform combines in-store payments, point-of-sale systems, and merchant intelligence tools, including an AI-powered dashboard and real-time transaction analytics, alongside round-the-clock human support and dedicated account managers.
Davis Chan
“Singapore is, for us, more than a market. It is the model,” said Davis Chan, KPay’s Co-Founder and CEO.
He said the standards KPay has built in Singapore, one of the company’s two headquarters, shape what it aims to deliver as it expands across Asia Pacific.
Keith Chen, KPay’s General Manager for Singapore, said the approval lets the local team provide even stronger support to merchants, adding that KPay remains committed to delivering smart, merchant-friendly technology as it works to satisfy MAS’s remaining conditions.
A Milestone Built on Record Funding
KPay picked up a string of recent recognition before this approval; the Asia FinTech Awards named it PayTech of the Year, and Forbes Asia included it on its “100 to Watch” list in 2025.
