Thunes, the Singapore-based global payments platform, has received In-Principle Approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore for a variation of its Major Payment Institution licence. This regulatory milestone marks a significant step forward in Thunes’ expansion strategy and signals Singapore’s growing influence as a regional hub for cross-border payments and regulatory innovation.
The approval grants Thunes Asia the ability to expand beyond its existing cross-border money transfer service. Subject to final conditions being met, the variation would enable the fintech firm to offer a wider suite of services including account issuance, domestic money transfers, merchant acquisition, and e-money issuance. This will allow Singapore merchants to accept a broader range of international payment methods and, in parallel, give global merchants access to popular Singapore-based options like PayNow and GrabPay.
The licence enhancement aligns with Thunes’ broader objective of bridging digital financial services between developed and emerging markets through its Direct Global Network, which currently supports over 320 local payment methods.
What does the MPI licence upgrade allow Thunes to do differently in Singapore?
The proposed expansion of Thunes’ MPI licence opens a new chapter in the company’s ability to support digital merchant ecosystems. With this regulatory shift, Thunes Asia would move beyond cross-border remittances into core domestic financial services traditionally occupied by banks or regulated e-money players. These include the issuing of digital payment accounts, processing local money transfers, onboarding merchants for payment acceptance, and handling e-money transactions within Singapore.
This multi-functional expansion is designed to enhance interoperability between global consumers and Singapore-based merchants, and vice versa. In practical terms, it means a European or Middle Eastern merchant using Thunes’ platform could soon offer GrabPay or PayNow at checkout, while Singaporean merchants could begin accepting Visa, Mastercard, or other international schemes more seamlessly via the same infrastructure.
Thunes positions itself as a compliance-first infrastructure layer, and the MPI licence expansion reflects MAS’ confidence in the firm’s ability to meet operational and governance standards required for broad-based payment activity in Singapore.
Peter De Caluwe, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Thunes Group, stated that the approval represents a pivotal growth milestone and reaffirms Singapore’s role as the fintech company’s global headquarters. He highlighted that Singapore serves not only as the group’s innovation hub but also as the nerve center for governance, compliance, and infrastructure scaling.
How does this tie into Thunes’ global expansion and emerging market reach?
Thunes has spent much of 2025 accelerating its footprint across major high-growth corridors. The licence variation is arriving on the heels of strategic partnerships across the Middle East and Africa that position Thunes as one of the few fintech platforms capable of delivering real-time interoperability across mobile wallets, banks, and neobanks at scale.
In Nigeria, Thunes recently joined forces with MoMo Payment Service Bank, a subsidiary of MTN Group, to launch a cross-border remittance service that enables millions of Nigerians to receive funds instantly from overseas. The integration with MoMo’s digital wallet infrastructure now allows recipients to use incoming remittances for airtime, bills, local transfers, and online shopping. This rollout also reflects a deeper objective to address financial inclusion gaps across Africa, where banking access remains limited but mobile wallet penetration is surging.
The partnership allows Nigerians to receive funds from high-volume remittance corridors such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa. Thunes executives described the alliance as a critical component of its effort to enable the next billion users to participate in the global economy.
Aik Boon Tan, Chief Network Officer at Thunes, framed the deal as an infrastructure play that removes friction in cross-border financial access while helping partner institutions tap into underserved markets without costly legacy integrations.
Why the UAE corridor matters in Thunes’ cross-border strategy
A few days prior to the Singapore development, Thunes unveiled a new partnership with First Abu Dhabi Bank, one of the largest and most stable financial institutions in the Middle East. The collaboration will allow First Abu Dhabi Bank customers to execute real-time mobile wallet payouts and cross-border transfers through Thunes’ Direct Global Network, covering over 130 countries.
This partnership is deeply aligned with the UAE’s national digital finance strategy, including the Central Bank’s Financial Infrastructure Transformation programme and “We the UAE 2031” economic development agenda. By integrating Thunes’ platform, First Abu Dhabi Bank aims to make outbound international transfers more efficient, transparent, and cost-effective for retail and corporate clients.
Simon Nelson, Chief Commercial Officer at Thunes, described the partnership as a vote of confidence in Thunes’ ability to deliver global interoperability at scale. The UAE’s growing prominence as a remittance and trade finance hub makes it a key node in Thunes’ strategic corridor expansion plans.
The Middle East deal complements Thunes’ expanding coverage across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, positioning it as a next-generation alternative to traditional SWIFT-based correspondent banking networks.
How is Thunes leveraging regulatory credibility to scale faster?
Central to Thunes’ international growth strategy is its regulatory-first approach. The fintech firm holds over 50 financial services licences globally, covering markets ranging from the United States to Kenya and the Philippines. The MPI licence variation in Singapore is not just about feature expansion—it sends a strong signal to regulators and financial institutions that Thunes can be trusted with licensed money movement in high-risk, high-volume corridors.
General Counsel Ruwan De Soyza emphasised that Thunes’ regulatory commitment is backed by its proprietary Fortress Compliance Platform, which underpins real-time risk management, anti-money laundering controls, and transaction integrity across borders. He added that the firm’s emphasis on governance has been a differentiator in securing strategic partnerships with Tier 1 banks and telecom-based payment providers.
By obtaining in-principle approval from one of the world’s most respected financial regulators, Thunes is better positioned to accelerate secondary approvals in other Asia-Pacific jurisdictions. Singapore’s role as the company’s global HQ provides a compliance anchor that de-risks operations for international partners onboarding into the Thunes network.
What does this mean for the future of real-time payments and global interoperability?
Thunes is effectively building a cross-border infrastructure layer that mimics the functionality of domestic real-time payment systems but operates globally. The ability to send, receive, convert, and spend money in near real time across multiple rails, including mobile wallets, digital banks, and e-money platforms, puts it at the center of a broader fintech trend toward embedded finance.
With the addition of domestic services in Singapore, Thunes could eventually offer a full-stack solution to both consumers and merchants. This would allow multinational merchants to consolidate their payment operations across multiple countries while offering localised methods to customers—a capability that could erode the value proposition of legacy acquirers, FX firms, and even some neobanks.
Moreover, Thunes’ approach resonates with central bank priorities around digital infrastructure, especially in markets where stablecoins and CBDCs are still in the pilot phase. The platform’s ability to offer instant settlement across currencies and geographies, while meeting licensing thresholds, gives it a unique advantage in the evolving payments landscape.
What are the strategic implications of Thunes’ latest moves?
Thunes is positioning itself not just as a payments processor but as a global financial infrastructure layer tailored to the next billion users. Its MPI licence variation in Singapore, combined with high-impact partnerships in Nigeria and the UAE, reflects a rapid maturation of its capabilities from transactional B2B partnerships to full-suite service provision.
As institutional investors increasingly back firms solving for financial inclusion at scale, Thunes stands out for its combination of regulatory discipline, partner diversification, and geographic spread. Analysts tracking the sector believe that Thunes could emerge as a consolidation platform in the cross-border payments space, especially as banks and telcos seek to exit non-core remittance operations in emerging markets.
For now, investors and regulators will watch how quickly Thunes completes the final conditions for the MPI licence variation in Singapore, and how effectively it scales these new capabilities across its global network in 2026.
What are the key takeaways from Thunes’ expanding regulatory and partner momentum?
- Thunes received In-Principle Approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore to expand its MPI licence, allowing it to offer account issuance, domestic transfers, merchant services, and e-money issuance.
- Singapore merchants will soon be able to accept global payment methods, while international merchants will gain access to Singapore’s local methods like PayNow and GrabPay.
- The development follows recent strategic partnerships with MoMo PSB in Nigeria and First Abu Dhabi Bank in the UAE, showcasing Thunes’ reach across Africa and the Middle East.
- Thunes now operates a 320+ method payment network powered by over 50 global licences, making it a key infrastructure player in cross-border payments.
- With Singapore as its regulatory base, Thunes is actively building a compliance-led, interoperable payments stack to serve both enterprise and end-user segments across emerging markets.
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