FinTech News: Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to review 14 bids for digital bank licences

#digitalbanks #singapore #regulation #license #banking

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Authority of Singapore is to review 14 successful applicants for five available digital bank licences, in a concerted effort to inject competition into the banking sector by enabling non-bank players with innovative digital business models to offer banking services.

Applicants include e-commerce firms, technology and telecommunications companies, fintechs - such as crowd-funding platforms and payment services providers - and financial institutions. The majority of applicants are consortiums, says MAS, with entities seeking to combine their individual strengths to enhance the digital bank’s value proposition.

Publicly known bids include those from wealth management tech supplier iFast, gaming group Razer, ride-hailing firm Grab and telco Singtel, Chinese giant ANT Financial Services and Southeast Asian consumer internet company Sea Limited.

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MAS to review 14 bids for digital bank licences

The Monetary Authority of Singapore is to review 14 successful applicants for five available digital bank licences, in a concerted effort to inject competition into the banking sector by enabling non-bank players with innovative digital business models to offer banking services.

Google Pay not a payment system operator: RBI to Delhi High Court

#paymentsolutions #rbi #litigation #regtech #fintech #paymentservices

In an ongoing PIL, RBI has also told the Delhi High Court that since Google Pay does not operate any payment system, it does not find a place in the list of authorised payment system operators published by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

The bench said the matter requires detailed hearing as it affects other third party apps and listed it on July 22.

All FinTech startups using user consent to make payments in their payment apps should be careful and make it clear on their websites that they are not a payment register operator approved under NPCI and they are only user consent based payment solution provider.

Now the question is whether such services also come under the purview of NPCI?

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Google Pay not a payment system operator: RBI to Delhi HC

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has told the Delhi High Court that Google Pay is a third party app provider (TPAP) and does not operate any payment systems. Therefore, its operations are not in violation of the Payment and Settlement System Act of 2007, RBI has told a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan.

Indian Government: Faster nod for clinical trials of all drugs and vaccines soon

The government has designated the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) as the first point of registration for clinical trials of all drugs and vaccines, a move expected to cut the approval time to three months from 12 months.

A committee led by cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba has also decided to set up a nodal coordination committee to ensure expeditious disposal of all applications with the decision binding on all regulators.

The government may soon come out with medium and long-term measures to expedite the approval process as it looks to attract foreign capital and boost local pharma.

The cabinet secretary-led panel has suggested multiple regulators and authorities dealing with approvals to revisit their approval process. The idea is to eliminate unnecessary processes.

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Faster nod for clinical trials of all drugs and vaccines soon

A committee led by cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba has also decided to set up a nodal coordination committee to ensure expeditious disposal of all applications with the decision binding on all regulators. "The proposal was cleared by the committee in the first week of June," a top government official told ET.