Digital assets trading platform Sparrow announced that it had secured an in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for a major payment institution (MPI) license to provide Digital Payment Token (DPT) services.
The company said that it is currently working to obtain the formal MPI license.
Sparrow was one of the three recipients of the in-principle approvals that was announced by Heng Swee Keat, Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies, at the Point Zero Forum.
The platform has started accepting PayNow transfers among institutional clients so clients can easily buy or sell cryptocurrencies using fiat on Sparrow.
Sparrow had raised a total of approximately US$10 million in a Series A funding round and has doubled its headcount with plans to continue actively hiring across all functions.
“With the rising adoption of cryptocurrencies among financial institutions and wealth managers, regulatory compliance is essential to ensure digital asset activities are conducted in a safe, secure and trustworthy manner. Our clients are concerned not just with risks and volatility, but more importantly, with authenticity and transparency.
With the in-principle approval from the MAS, Sparrow will continue to serve clients with the highest compliance and security standards. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank the regulatory bodies for supporting the development of our home-grown company,”
said Kenneth Yeo, Chief Executive Officer of Sparrow.
“A robust and solid enterprise risk and compliance management program is critical, particularly in the cryptocurrency industry.
Sparrow is dedicated to elevating its business processes and frameworks while increasing the trust and confidence among our clients,”
said Chung Yee Mak, Chief Risk and Compliance Officer at Sparrow.