Payments and Money Services Licensing in GMC

A payments business has to answer one question before it builds anything in the Gelephu Mindfulness City: is the money it will hold a deposit, a payment account balance or stored value? The answer decides which licence it needs. Basnet Law Pte. Ltd., the first law firm incorporated in the Gelephu Mindfulness City, advises payment, remittance, wallet and e-money businesses on the Financial Services Act 2025 and deals with the Gelephu Financial Services Office for them.

Classifying every customer money flow as a deposit, a payment account, stored value or money remittance.

Testing each function against the Money Services exclusions, including the technical-service-provider and limited-network safe harbours.

Advising on whether a fiat-referenced token layer adds a separate issuance activity to the payments licence.

Preparing the business model presentation, the regulatory business plan and the compliance file GFSO assesses.

Filing the licence application and the Approved Person applications for the mandatory Controlled Functions.

Running the In-Principle Approval conditions: incorporation, the GMC bank account, capital injection, office and key hires.

Payment institutions and merchant acquirers establishing a GMC entity. Remittance operators and currency exchange businesses serving Gelephu's workforce and visitors. Wallet and e-money issuers whose balances are held to make payments rather than to fund lending. Stablecoin projects that also want to run the payment layer on their own token. Firms already licensed in Singapore, Abu Dhabi Global Market or Hong Kong considering the May 2026 fast-track pathway.