Choosing the right consulting partner

​

     1.    Expertise and Specialism in Banking, Payments and E-money

Banking, e-money and payment services are specialist fields, requiring prior expertise, knowledge and a specialist focus. You should ensure that your consultant specialises in this area as opposed to generalising in it. They should be comfortable explaining the technical aspects of this field, such as providing technical and regulatory requirements for licence authorisation. The financial regulator will have conditions and expectations regarding different aspects of the application. For example, shareholders and management should be fit & proper, of good repute and have relevant experience and knowledge. A good consultant should be able to advise you on the regulatory requirements early on in order to manage your time effectively and minimise any delays or wrong decisions. It should be your consultant’s role to guide and advise you on best practices and regulatory requirements. For example, we spend time advising clients from an early stage, in fact during the initial meeting and prior to taking on their application, of such requirements so that they are able to make an informed decision before investing their time.

     2.    Ability to access banking products and services

Setting up an e-money, payment or banking fintech goes beyond the scope of obtaining a licence. You will require specialist banking facilities, such as client safeguarding accounts, and access to payment systems, such as SEPA and Swift. Furthermore, you will require systems and software to manage your business. It is therefore important that your consulting partner has a strong network of connections with banks, technology partners and regulators. For example, by working closely with partners, such as Visa, Mastercard, Wirecard, and central banks, we are able to help clients by arranging banking facilities, such as safeguarding accounts, issuing cards, and access to payment infrastructures, such as SWIFT and SEPA.

     3.    Communication

Communication between a consultant and their client is extremely important. They should be open to meeting with you if required or to discuss your project during an initial meeting and thereafter have regular conversations with their clients. For example, we have at least a weekly telephone or conference call with our clients to discuss the progress of their licence authorisation application or related project. This helps the client to understand the progress of their application and be able to report key information and developments to their management team or board. At the same time, it enables us to understand how the client is coming along in developing the operational aspect of their business.

     4.    International approach

Banking, electronic money and payment services are international in their very nature. As our clients grow internationally their needs change. Firms, therefore, require licences, banking facilities, infrastructure and partners in international markets. We often find firms working with multiple legal, accounting and related firms. This can be challenging for such firms and often slows down their international growth. Furthermore, firms then must work with multiple partners within each country to manage different requirements e.g. company formation, accounting, legal, systems & IT, banks, and software vendors. This is further problematic when entering new markets. To manage these problems, our services are offered on an international level with offices strategically located in key jurisdictions across Europe and Asia. Our clients enjoy one point of contact for all their national and international requirements. This helps to remove any language barriers which they would otherwise face. Our services include accounting, legal, administration and banking, which means that our clients can centralise their requirements with us.

​

     5.    Prior authorisation applications experience and success rate

Firms should ensure that their consulting partner has good knowledge and experience in banking, e-money and payment services. They should be able to demonstrate strong knowledge and experience within this area and be comfortable with explaining the legal and regulatory framework concerning banking, payment services, and electronic money. Your consulting partner should be able to share a client reference or provide client testimonials for similar past successful projects. For example, our website provides details of our recent work as well as the names of some of our clients.