Tintra granted online payments licence in Mauritius

Tintra announced on Tuesday that its wholly-owned subsidiary Tintra Payments Mauritius (TPM) has been granted permission to start trading under a ‘payment intermediary services licence’ from the Mauritius Financial Services Commission.

The AIM-traded firm said the licence would allow TPM to operate as an online payment service provider, covering the provision of payment services and merchant online services for accepting electronic payments by a variety of methods including credit card, bank-based payments such as direct debit, bank transfer, and real-time transfer based on online banking.

It said Mauritius had become an “important financial services hub” for Africa and south Asia, with the approval of TPM to start operations seen by the board as “an important step” in the development of its ‘web 3.0’ banking strategy.

TPM, a Mauritian-incorporated company, was currently finalising its name change from Oyster Payment Services - a brand the company used when forming the original vehicle in 2018, which was never activated.

At the same time, and to “more closely align” with the company's strategy, Tintra said the name of its artificial intelligence (AI) joint venture vehicle that houses its relationship with TMC2, announced on 24 November, had changed from Finsensr to Tintra 3.0.

“This is the latest spoke in the hub and spoke financial model we are building,” said chief executive officer Richard Shearer.

“I look forward to further announcements in this regard in other territories around the world in the fullness of time.

“A number of conversations are underway globally with strategic jurisdictions, such as Mauritius, that align with our road map and strategy.”

Shearer said simultaneously, that would give the company the scope to execute its philosophy of building relationships with partners and territories.

“The previously-announced hubs of our emerging market clearing bank network, namely the UK, Qatar and Puerto Rico, will be supported by ancillary e-licenses such as the licence announced here, which is the result of a lot of work to create future value from an under-utilised legacy company asset.

“This licence will bridge currencies and territories utilising our innovative artificial intelligence-led compliance, that we fully expect will lead the world in eroding financial friction as we build a Web3 bank that is truly beyond borders, politics and geography.”

At 0805 BST, shares in Tintra were up 10.77% at 180p.