Asia Tech Wire (Sep 24) -- The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Monday issued a directive requiring local shopping site Qoo10 to suspend all payment services with immediate effect.

The MAS said the directive will not prevent Qoo10 from continuing to operate its e-commerce platform, but Qoo10 may have to hire a third-party payment service operator to process transactions on the e-commerce platform.

The agency also mentioned that merchants should raise the issue with Qoo10 if they face payment delays.

And merchants who are experiencing liquidity problems due to payment delays can contact the financial institutions listed on Enterprise Singapore's website to apply for a working capital loan under the Enterprise Financing Scheme (EFS).