PSA: Payment Services Act 2019
The Payment Services Act 2019 (Act 2 of 2019) is Singapore's statute licensing payment service providers under the Monetary Authority of Singapore. It creates the money-changing, standard payment institution, and major payment institution licences, covering services including e-money, remittance, merchant acquisition and digital payment tokens.
At a glance
| Official title | Payment Services Act 20191 |
|---|---|
| English title | Payment Services Act 2019 |
| Citation | Act 2 of 2019 (2020 Rev. Ed.) |
| Jurisdiction | Singapore |
| Type | act |
| In force from | 2020-01-28 |
| Status | in force |
Full text
Official full text: Payment Services Act 2019 (PDF, en)1 · 721 KB · file checked 2026-09-24 · consolidated version of 2025-03-09
Official page: sso.agc.gov.sg1
Summary
The Payment Services Act 2019 establishes Singapore's licensing regime for payment service providers under the Monetary Authority of Singapore. It covers seven payment services (account issuance, domestic/cross-border money transfer, e-money issuance, merchant acquisition, money-changing, and digital payment token (DPT) services) listed in the First Schedule. A person providing these services must hold a money-changing licence, standard payment institution licence, or major payment institution licence, unless exempt. The Act sets conduct-of-business rules, safeguarding of customer money, security requirements, controller and officer approval regimes, audit powers, and offences for unlicensed activity or false information. It also regulates designated payment systems and their operators, and contains transitional provisions carrying over licences and exemptions from the predecessor Money-Changing and Remittance Businesses Act and Payment Systems (Oversight) Act.
Summary written by the Atlas from the official text; the law itself prevails.
Main articles
- s.5: Sets penalties (fine and/or up to 3 years' imprisonment) for providing payment services without a licence.
- s.6: Creates three licence types: money-changing, standard payment institution, major payment institution.
- s.11: Grounds for lapsing, revocation or suspension of a licence, including fit-and-proper failures.
- s.14: Licensee must keep a permanent place of business/registered office in Singapore and notify address changes.
- s.28: Regulates control of shareholding (change of control) in a licensee, part of Division 3.
- s.34: Requires Authority approval to appoint a chief executive officer, director or partner of a licensee.
Licences it governs
Regulators that apply it
Sources
- sso.agc.gov.sg: PSA2019 · retrieved 2026-09-24
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