EMI Licence: What It Permits and How It Affects Card Acceptance

An electronic money institution is authorised to issue e-money and hold client funds, which places it in a regulated category of its own during payment underwriting: the questions shift from whether the business is legitimate to how client money, safeguarding and financial-crime controls are run.

Last reviewed September 2026

What the authorisation covers

Issuing electronic money and holding customer balances.
Providing payment services associated with those balances.
Safeguarding client funds separately from the firm's own money.
Operating under the financial-crime obligations of the issuing regulator.

EMI compared with a payment institution

A payment institution can execute payments but cannot issue e-money or hold stored balances in the same way. If your product gives customers a balance, a wallet or a card they load, that is normally EMI territory. The distinction matters for acceptance because it changes who holds customer funds.

What underwriting focuses on for a licensed firm

The exact scope of the licence and the regulator's public register entry.
Safeguarding arrangements and where client funds sit.
AML and sanctions framework, plus the responsible officer.
Whether services are passported, and into which markets.
The flow of funds diagram: who holds money at each step.

Why licensed firms are still assessed carefully

Holding a licence is evidence of supervision, not a shortcut through underwriting. Providers still assess the customer base, geography and dispute exposure, and no licence guarantees acceptance by any particular acquirer.

Crypto

Crypto acceptance depends on what the customer receives. On-ramps selling digital assets, custodial exchanges and crypto-adjacent SaaS are underwritten as three different risk profiles.

Forex & CFD

Trading platforms are underwritten on regulatory status and client geography. A regulated brokerage in a recognised jurisdiction has a materially different provider pool than an offshore entity taking retail clients worldwide.

United Kingdom

A UK company is straightforward to onboard for mainstream card acceptance, and the questions that decide the outcome are usually your sector, your trading history and where your customers are, rather than the country of registration itself.

Germany

A German GmbH or UG is a familiar profile for European acquirers, and the practical work is less about acceptance of the jurisdiction and more about supporting the local payment methods German customers actually use.

SEPA Direct Debit

SEPA Direct Debit lets you pull euro payments from a customer's bank account under a mandate they have signed, which makes it well suited to recurring billing and poorly suited to anything where you need immediate certainty that the money will stay.

PSP vs acquirer

The PSP provides the technology and the commercial relationship; the acquirer holds the scheme licence, underwrites your business and settles your money. Many merchants need both, sometimes bundled by one provider, sometimes contracted separately.

What is a PSP?

A payment service provider is the company that connects your checkout to the card schemes and local payment methods, submits transactions for authorisation, and reports on them. Some PSPs also hold the acquiring licence; many route your transactions to a separate acquiring bank.

Check which payment routes may fit your business

Answer a short set of questions about your business and we will check your profile against the requirements providers have given us. No approval is decided here.

Start assessment

Nothing is shared with a provider until you submit your onboarding pack. Approval is always the provider's decision.