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We prepare and file Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) applications for payment, e-money, cryptoasset and investment firms from our London office, and stay with each application until the FCA decides.
Selected engagements from more than 250 licences obtained since 2013, for payment, e-money and cryptoasset firms.
Volkswagen
Payment InstitutionObtained Nexpay’s FCA Authorised Payment Institution licence.
Electronic Money InstitutionObtained Dzing Finance’s FCA Authorised Electronic Money Institution licence.
Obtained Orbital’s FCA Authorised Payment Institution licence.
The short answer
FCA authorisation consultants prepare a firm's application for FCA permission and manage it to a decision: confirming the permissions needed, writing the business plan and policies, completing the forms in the FCA's Connect system, preparing the people the FCA will interview and answering its questions. Buckingham Capital Consulting has obtained more than 250 licences since 2013, including FCA authorisations for payment and e-money firms and more than 50 variations of permission.
The FCA authorises firms under several regimes, each with its own rules, capital and decision periods. The first step in every engagement is confirming which regime applies to your business and which permissions to apply for, so the application asks for exactly what you need.
The FCA assesses an application on what it can read and test. A complete application answers its questions before they are asked, which is what most shortens the time to a decision.
For payment and e-money firms, the FCA must decide within three months of a complete application and within twelve months of an incomplete one; its published median decision time is 219 days. For firms authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act, including cryptoasset and investment firms, the periods are six months for a complete application and twelve months for an incomplete one.
Throughout the assessment the FCA tests whether the firm meets its conditions for authorisation and whether the people running it are fit and proper. Its questions most often concern the business model, financial crime controls, safeguarding and the experience of key people, which is where we put the most work before filing.
An FCA application is a project with a fixed filing date and many contributors. We run it in five stages so nothing reaches the FCA before it is ready.
A selection of the FCA engagements on our record. Each is an application we prepared and obtained for the client.
Authorisation starts the FCA relationship rather than ending it. We support firms through the obligations that follow, from the first regulatory return to their first change of ownership.
The FCA judges the application, not the adviser who prepared it, so the test of a consultant is the quality of what they file and how they handle the FCA's questions. These questions help you judge that before you appoint anyone.
We open global markets to payment, e-money and crypto businesses: the licences to enter, the banking to operate and the compliance to scale. Since 2013 we have obtained more than 250 licences in over 60 countries.
No. The FCA accepts applications directly from firms. Firms appoint a consultant to reduce the time to a decision and the risk of refusal, because a complete, well-evidenced application avoids most of the questions that delay one.
For payment and e-money firms, the FCA must decide within three months of a complete application and its published median is 219 days; plan for six to eight months after submission. For cryptoasset and investment firms, the FCA must decide within six months of a complete application.
The FCA's application fees depend on the permission: £1,130 for a small payment institution or small EMI, £2,820 or £5,640 for an authorised payment institution or EMI, £2,820 to £28,150 for cryptoasset firms and £2,820 to £56,300 for investment firms.
Yes. We review applications firms have drafted themselves, set out the gaps in writing against what the FCA assesses, and can complete and file the application with you.
Yes. We take on applications already with the FCA, prepare the answers to its questions and, where needed, the changes to the business plan, policies or people that the questions point to.
Yes. Many of our clients are overseas businesses entering the UK. The FCA expects a UK presence and people who run the business from the UK, and we assemble that local team as part of the application.
Tell us what you need and where you operate.