THE Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has directed Singapore-headquartered e-commerce platform Qoo10 to suspend its provision of payment services locally from Sep 23.
This comes after the authorities received several merchant complaints between April and August this year against the platform for delays in processing payments.
The company was asked to address the complaints, some of which were resolved while others remained outstanding, said MAS in a media release on Monday (Sep 23).
Early this month, Qoo10 informed MAS that a significant number of merchants will face payment delays.
The financial regulator subsequently engaged with the company’s management about the delays, and offered it opportunities to remedy the situation.
Qoo10 was also asked to take steps to satisfy MAS that it would be able to meet its obligations to merchants on an ongoing basis, including engaging a third-party payment service provider to offer the covered services.
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
But, to date, the company has been unable to provide sufficient assurance that it has the resources and systems to meet its payment obligations to its merchants in a timely manner, said MAS, which led to the suspension.
The regulator noted that it had carefully considered the potential disruption that the suspension could cause to Qoo10’s e-commerce platform or other services integrated with its covered payments services.
“(But) permitting Qoo10 to continue providing covered payments services would expose more merchants… to risks of larger outstanding obligations and potential losses,” stated the release.
The company will be allowed to make payments to fulfil outstanding claims by these merchants, but cannot take on new payment obligations.
While the suspension does not stop Qoo10 from operating its e-commerce platform, it may need to engage a third-party payment