Payment licence consultants.

In the UK, an authorised payment institution holds initial capital set by its services: €20,000 for money remittance, €50,000 for payment initiation and €125,000 for payment accounts and card acquiring. A small payment institution needs no initial capital, may handle up to €3 million of payment transactions a month and serves the UK only. Firms that only provide account information register as a registered account information service provider.

Businesses that serve European customers usually add a payment institution licence in an EU country and passport it across the Union. We compare the countries on capital, timing, local people and banking access, and recommend one route in writing.

Compare the UK payment licences

We run every payment licence as a project with five stages and one owner, so you always know what is due, from whom and by when.

• Scoping: your services, customers, countries and volumes, confirmed against the licence in writing.
• Plan: the document list, the information we need from you and the filing date.
• Drafting: we write the application pack with your team and assemble the local team where the regulator requires it.
• Filing: we submit and manage every regulator question until the decision.
• Go-live: bank and safeguarding accounts, acquiring or processing, and compliance for the first year.

For planning, an authorised payment institution in the UK takes six to eight months from submission and a small payment institution three to four months. The FCA must decide within three months of a complete application.

Much of our payment work is for firms that already hold a licence and need to change it, grow it or keep it in good standing. The same team that obtains licences handles this work.

• Moving from small payment institution to authorised payment institution
• Variations of permission to add services such as payment initiation or account information
• Change in control when investors or buyers take a stake of 10% or more
• Bank and safeguarding accounts, acquiring and payment processing
• Regulatory returns, safeguarding audits and compliance monitoring

Change in control applications

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, including more than 50 variations of permission.

• Offices in London, at 1 Kingdom Street, W2 6BD, and New York, at 14 Wall Street, NY 10005
• A reply within three business hours, and a written proposal the same day
• One in-house team from the application to launch, including banking and processing
• Founded by operators who have run regulated payment businesses