Ripple plans to obtain an Australian Financial Services Licence through the acquisition of payments firm BC Payments Australia as the company expands its regulated operations globally.
The deal, expected to close on April 1, would give Ripple access to BC Payments Australia’s AFSL, a licence increasingly required for companies providing financial services involving digital assets in the country.
“There was enough institutional interest in digital assets to warrant the investment for us,”
Said Ripple APAC managing director, Fiona Murray.
Ripple said the licence would allow its Ripple Payments platform to manage the full transaction lifecycle in Australia, including onboarding, compliance, funding, foreign exchange, liquidity management and final settlement using both banking rails and digital assets.
“Getting licenced was always part of our plan,”
Murray said.
The acquisition forms part of Ripple’s broader push to secure regulatory approvals globally, including recent payment licences in Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom, along with conditional approval for a national trust banking charter in the United States.
Australia is currently tightening its crypto oversight through proposed digital asset legislation and regulatory guidance from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, which has urged crypto platforms to secure AFSL licences ahead of potential enforcement actions.