As set out on the FCA's authorisations page:
- You are a body corporate (eg a limited company or partnership)
- You must carry on - or will carry on - some of your payment services business in the UK
- You have robust governance arrangements and internal procedures and control mechanisms
- You have a business plan
- You have taken adequate measures to safeguard payment service user funds
- If you provide payment initiation services (PIS) and account information services (AIS) you must hold adequate professional indemnity insurance
- Directors and managers must be of good repute with appropriate skills to provide payment services
- Managers must not have been convicted of money laundering, terrorist financing or other financial crimes
- Your head office and registered office must be in the UK
- Your MLRO must be based in the UK
- You must comply with the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (amended 2019)
- Anyone having a qualifying holding must be fit and proper, and
- If the applicant has close links to another person, the links mustn’t be likely to prevent the FCA's effective supervision of the business (if the links are outside the UK, foreign laws mustn’t prevent the FCA's effective supervision of the business)
An authorised payment institution licence normally tyakes around 4-6 weeks to prepare. The FCA's processing time is highly variable and could be from 3-12 months.
We’re proud to have a 99% success rate with applications we’ve made on behalf of our clients. We don’t want to waste your time or our own so, before we take on your case, we’ll screen your company, directors and shareholders to make sure you meet the FCA’s requirements. Doing these initial checks mean we can be confident you’ll be granted your API licence first time.
We charge a flat fee for an API licence application, which includes unlimited follow-up with the FCA until your licence is granted.
Contact us today to find out how we can help you get your SPI licence quickly with no fuss. Fill in our online form and we’ll call you straight back.
