Global Licence Tracker: Payment and E‑Money Institutions.

Source

Every EU and EEA figure on this page comes from the EBA Central Register of payment and e-money institutions, the official EU list that the European Banking Authority compiles from the registers each national regulator keeps. We use the full file the EBA publishes for download, version dated 30 October 2026 at 16:00 UTC, downloaded on 30 October 2026.

What counts as authorised

A firm counts when its latest register entry is an authorisation with no later withdrawal. Each firm is counted once, in the country of its head office, which is also the country of the regulator that licensed it. Branches, and agents that act for a licensed firm, are not counted.

Which firms

E-money institutions are firms licensed to issue electronic money, such as prepaid cards and balances held in an app. Payment institutions are firms licensed to provide payment services, such as transfers, card acceptance and money remittance, without issuing electronic money. Small institutions that hold a lighter licence, and firms registered only to show account information, are counted separately.

New and withdrawn

A new authorisation is a firm whose first authorisation date falls in the month. A withdrawal is the date on which a firm's authorisation ended. A firm that moves from one licence type to the other, for example from payment institution to e-money institution, shows as one withdrawal and one new authorisation.

Dates

Dates are as each regulator reports them, and some regulators enter several decisions on one day: 7 authorisations in the Netherlands carry the same date, 21 May 2026. The EBA register has no legal effect of its own; the register of each national regulator is the official record.

Cross-checks

Ireland matches exactly: 29 EMIs and 26 PIs on both registers, with the same new authorisations and withdrawals in 2026. Cyprus matches for PIs (10 on both). For EMIs the Central Bank of Cyprus lists 33 and the EBA 30. The national register already shows Payabl. Cy Limited and Paycomcy Limited as EMIs, while the EBA still lists them as PIs. The national register still lists Koronapay Europe Limited, with a note that its licence is being withdrawn; the EBA records the withdrawal on 23 July 2026. The registers of Lithuania, Malta and the Netherlands could not be read automatically and were not used.

Crypto firms

We matched every firm authorised in 2026 against ESMA's register of crypto-asset service providers, on exact legal or trading name and home country. 51 matched. Firms whose names differ between the two registers are not counted, so the true figure may be higher.