Singapore’s Digital Treasures Center gets regulatory nod to provide digital payment token

Singapore payment firm Digital Treasures Center (DTC) said Wednesday the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has awarded the company In-Principle Approval (IPA) to provide digital payment token service together with other payment services.

Digital payment tokens are commonly known as cryptocurrency. DTC is among the first few applicants to receive the go-ahead to provide digital payment token services.

“We are delighted to receive MAS’ nod of approval. It is a testament of DTC’s strong compliance and regulatory culture. This demonstrates that DTC can comply with regulations around digital payment tokens and other payment services while achieving a sustainable business model,” DTC Chief Strategy Officer Desmond Yong said in a statement.

Once DTC has fulfilled all the criteria listed under the IPA, the company will be able to render the following payment services: account issuance service – open accounts for merchants and consumers to accept and pay e-money and non-card transactions; merchant acquisition service – enable merchants to leverage DTC services to accept and process payment transactions online and offline; domestic money transfer service – provide local money transfer services in Singapore; cross-border money transfer service – provide cross-border money transfer services globally; e-money issuance service – issue e-money for merchants and consumers; digital payment token service – facilitate transactions with digital payment tokens.

With a license under the Payment Services Act to offer Digital Payment Token services, DTC will be able to provide fiat-to-crypto pairing. This allows merchants to accept cryptocurrencies—including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether—and convert them into fiat including SGD and USD.

Founded in 2019, DTC began as a Singapore payment company offering payment solution that enables merchants to connect online and offline payment, as well as accept cryptocurrency payments. Since then, it has serviced a diverse group of merchants ranging from finance to lifestyle industries. The company has helped transform how merchants accept payments to include cryptocurrency.

The company is building the payment infrastructure and creating an enterprise-grade payment solution to empower consumers and merchants to interact seamlessly with fiat and cryptocurrency. It has received the highest data security compliance certification – Level 1 of the Payment Card industry Data Security Standard. The company has also received encryption systems certification and received Level 3 HSM security of the Federal Information Processing Standards. It provides merchants with an all-in-one point of sales for offline transactions, API connectivity for machine interaction and intuitive web-based solutions for those who prefer to operate out of DTC’s portal.

“The crypto industry is a multi-trillion-dollar market experiencing exponential adoption rate with the growth of decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible token (NFT) and Metaverse. We seek to empower merchants to do business globally by opening a secure payment gateway to seamlessly accept crypto, cash and card.”” said El Lee, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of DTC.

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