Apply to become an electronic money or a payment institution

Will your firm provide payment services or issue electronic money (e-money)?

Is your firm one of the following types?

• credit union
• National Savings bank
• bank (otherwise authorised by us)
• building society (otherwise authorised by us)
• e-money institution (authorised under the EMRs)
• municipal bank

You don't need to register or be authorised under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (the PSRs)[2].

Will your firm provide an account information service (AIS) and/or a payment initiation service (PIS)?

Both are online services:

• an AIS provides consolidated information on one or more payment accounts held by a payment service user with payment service providers
• a PIS initiates a payment order at the request of a payment service user with respect to a payment account that they hold (this must only be done with the user's consent, and as an authenticated payment – a PIS provides an alternative to paying online using a credit card or debit card)

In a 12-month period, does your firm project to generate monthly average payment transactions of more than €3m?

You can choose to be registered as a small payment institution (SPI).

Please read the rest of this page and the page for payment institution applicants[3].

You must apply to become an authorised payment institution (API).

Please read the rest of this page and the page for payment institution applicants[3].

If the only payment service your firm will be providing is AIS, you should apply to register as a registered account information service provider (RAISP).

Please read the rest of this page and the page for RAISP applicants[4].

Is your firm one of the following types?

• credit institution (ie bank or building society)
• credit union
• municipal bank

You may need a Part 4A permission[5] under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA)[6].

Please read to our page about how to apply for authorisation[7] as a FSMA firm.

Does your firm project to issue average outstanding e-money of more than €5m?

You may apply to register as a small electronic money institution (SEMI).

As an SEMI, you can't provide an account information service (AIS) or a payment initiation service (PIS).

Please read the rest of this page and the page for electronic money institution applicants[8].

You must apply to become an authorised electronic money institution (AEMI).

Please read the rest of this page and the page for electronic money institution applicants[9].

Is your firm one of the following types?

• credit institution (ie bank or building society)
• credit union
• municipal bank

You can:

• refer to the definitions[2] of payment services and e-money
• consider whether you provide payment services[9]
• check if the payment services activities you'll be carrying out are excluded from our regulation[10]

You may need a Part 4A permission[6] under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA)[7].

Please read to our page about how to apply for authorisation[8] as a FSMA firm.

Will you provide payment services that are independent from your e-money products?

We refer to this as ‘unrelated payment services’ because they're services that don’t arise as a direct consequence of your e-money activity.

Note that you’ll need to provide additional information in your application about your unrelated payment services. 

Will your firm provide an account information service (AIS) and/or a payment initiation service (PIS)?

Both are online services:

• an AIS provides consolidated information on one or more payment accounts held by a payment service user with payment service providers
• a PIS initiates a payment order at the request of a payment service user with respect to a payment account that they hold (this must only be done with the user's consent, and as an authenticated payment – a PIS provides an alternative to paying online using a credit card or debit card)

Does your firm project to issue average outstanding e-money of more than €5m?

You must apply to become an authorised electronic money institution (AEMI).

Please read the rest of this page and the page for electronic money institution applicants[10].

It’s likely that your firm will only be issuing e-money, so you'll need to become an electronic money institution.

Does your firm project to issue average outstanding e-money of more than €5m?

You must apply to become an authorised electronic money institution (AEMI).

Please read the rest of this page and the page for electronic money institution applicants[17].

You may apply to register as a small electronic money institution (SEMI).

As an SEMI:

• you can't provide an account information service (AIS) or a payment initiation service (PIS), and
• your average monthly payment transactions in a 12-month period mustn't exceed €3m – otherwise you'll need to apply to be an authorised electronic money institution (AEMI)

Please read the rest of this page and the page for electronic money institution applicants[18].

You may apply to register as a small electronic money institution (SEMI).

Please read the rest of this page and the page for electronic money institution applicants[19].