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).

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.

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

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

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.

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 under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA).

Please read to our page about how to apply for authorisation 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.

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.

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 of payment services and e-money
• consider whether you provide payment services
• check if the payment services activities you'll be carrying out are excluded from our regulation

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

Please read to our page about how to apply for authorisation 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.

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.

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.

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.