This restriction is in fact consistent with the objective of the Payment Services Act (PS Act) to promote greater adoption of electronic payments and lesser reliance on cash services, which are already well provided by banks.

It also preserves the privileges of MAS' free trade agreement (FTA) partners, whose banks have been accorded access to ATMs and cashback services. Moreover, it is aligned with the industry practice today, where e-wallet issuers generally do not offer cash withdrawal services to their customers. 

While customers cannot withdraw Singapore dollars, e-money issuers can work with banks to enable funds to be transferred to the customer’s bank accounts. Such bank transfers will be further facilitated in future with MAS’ initiative to allow non-bank e-money issuers to interoperate with bank accounts.