01 · Licensing & Authorisation
Application for Authorisation
End-to-end guidance through licensing and registration — UK EMI and Payment Institution authorisation, Canadian FINTRAC and Bank of Canada registration, and EU EMI authorisation. Five distinct regimes, each handled strictly on its own terms.
At a glance
Overview
Five regimes, five separate rulebooks.
We help EMIs, payment institutions and money services businesses secure authorisation and registration across the UK, EU and Canada. Because each regime has its own regulator, legislation, capital threshold and process, we scope, apply and report against each one on its own terms — what applies to a UK EMI does not apply to a Canadian MSB, and we never treat them as interchangeable.
From your first scoping call to post-authorisation obligations, our team works as an extension of yours: precise, commercially aware, and accountable for the outcome.
Who it’s for
Find your regime.
Five regimes, five dedicated pages — each with its own regulator, legislation, capital requirement and timeline, never a blended average across all five. Open yours for the full detail.
The service in detail
Authorisation and registration are not form-filling exercises — they are a demonstration that your firm is fit, funded (where capital applies) and properly controlled, built and evidenced against whatever a specific regulator or registrar actually requires. We handle that end to end: scoping which regime applies, building the case, and staying with you through submission and every query that follows — for whichever regime is actually yours, not a generic template stretched across all five.
What we handle
Regulatory perimeter & regime scoping
We determine exactly which permissions or registrations you need — and which you don't — before any documentation work starts, so you're never paying to prepare for the wrong regime.
Business plan, financials & funding requirements
A three-year financial model, capital adequacy evidence where the regime requires it, and a business plan the regulator can actually follow — not a generic template repurposed from another jurisdiction.
Safeguarding & operational resilience
Customer fund protection arrangements, wind-down planning and the operational resilience evidence regulators expect — scoped to what your specific regime actually requires, not a one-size-fits-all pack.
AML/CFT framework & governance
The compliance programme, policies and governance documentation that sit behind the application — built to be genuinely operated once you're live, not just filed and forgotten after the licence is granted.
Submission & regulator liaison
We submit the application, track its progress and manage the regulator's queries on your behalf — translating what they're asking for into what you actually need to provide.
Process & timelines
From scoping to authorisation.
The three-phase timeline below is for the authorisation-type regimes — UK EMI, UK PSP and EU EMI — roughly 9–12 months for a well-prepared application. Canada’s FINTRAC and RPAA registrations don’t follow this shape at all; see the timeline in their own regime card above.
Document preparation & approval
Full build-out of the documentation suite with you, reviewed and signed off before submission. Preparation quality here is the single biggest driver of speed.
Review & query management
Submission and the regulator's review. The statutory clock pauses for each information request, so a well-prepared file typically resolves in six to nine months.
Pre-commencement & authorisation
Final conditions — capital injection, safeguarding account and final signed documents — then formal authorisation and go-live under ongoing supervision.
What we prepare
The full documentation suite.
A complete, regulator-ready pack. Applications are typically built on four core compliance programmes, plus the business and operational documentation that underpins them.
Illustrative for a UK/EU EMI-style authorisation — the exact set is tailored to your licence type and jurisdiction. Canada’s FINTRAC and RPAA registrations call for a leaner, compliance programme-focused pack instead of the full suite below (for example, CASS-based safeguarding items are UK-specific).
AML/CTF Programme
The firm's approach to customer due diligence, monitoring, screening and suspicious activity reporting.
+ supporting forms and registers
Safeguarding Programme
The firm's approach to customer funds segregation, reconciliation, protection and governance.
● CASS items apply to UK safeguarding — equivalent arrangements vary by jurisdiction. + supporting forms and registers
Governance Framework
The firm's structure, reporting lines, responsibilities and internal control environment.
+ supporting forms and registers
IT & Cybersecurity Programme
The firm's approach to systems, security controls, access management and incident response.
+ supporting standards and registers
Business & Operational Documentation
The commercial and operational backbone of the application — how the business runs and is governed.
+ supporting documentation and charts
What you actually get
Every submission tracked, start to finish.
You always know exactly where your application stands — what’s done, what’s in progress, and what’s next. Here’s an illustrative example of the tracker we run engagements against.
Who does the work
Senior people, start to finish.
Every application is scoped, built and submitted by senior team members who understand fintech and the specific regime that governs it — never delegated to a junior bench.
FAQ
Questions worth asking up front.
No — deliberately not. A UK EMI authorisation from the FCA under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 has almost nothing in common procedurally with a FINTRAC MSB registration in Canada under the PCMLTFA: different regulator, different legislation, different capital requirements (€350,000 versus none), and a different legal nature — authorisation versus registration. We scope, plan and deliver against whichever regime actually applies to you, not a generic template.
Authorisation (UK EMI, UK PSP, EU EMI) means a regulator reviews and approves your application on its merits — it can be refused, and typically takes months. Registration (Canada's FINTRAC MSB and Bank of Canada RPAA regimes) means you meet defined criteria and register accordingly — there's no discretionary approval step, but you take on binding compliance obligations from day one.
Possibly both — they cover different things. FINTRAC's MSB regime is about AML/CFT for money services activity (money transfer, forex, virtual currency exchange); the Bank of Canada's RPAA regime, in force since November 2024, is about operational risk and safeguarding end-user funds for retail payment activities. A business doing both types of activity typically needs both registrations. We'll tell you which applies to you specifically, not both by default.
UK EMI and EU EMI authorisation: roughly 9–12 months end to end for a well-prepared application (three months is the statutory minimum once your application is complete). UK PSP authorisation: often six to nine months. Canada's FINTRAC and RPAA registrations don't have the same approval-timeline concept — there's no discretionary review to wait on, though RPAA applicants go through national security screening.
That's exactly what the first call is for. It depends on what you actually do — issue e-money, provide payment services, or both — where your customers are, and how you're structured, not just where you're incorporated. We map it precisely before any documentation work starts, so you're not paying for the wrong application.
Secure your licence,
secure your future.
Book a scoping call and we’ll map your fastest, most defensible path to authorisation.