{ "meta": { "title": "Payment and E-Money Licence Requirements by Market", "description": "Which regulatory permission a payment or e-money product requires in each market, the sub-authorisation and agent routes available, and the statutory thresholds. Each cell is sourced to the regulator or the statute with a date checked.", "last_verified": "2026-08-03", "review_cadence": "quarterly", "next_review_due": "2026-11-03", "market_count": 9, "product_shapes": [ "hold_funds_for_others", "issue_accounts_ibans", "issue_cards", "move_money", "accept_payments_own_account_only" ], "path_types": [ "full_authorisation", "small_registered", "agent_distributor", "licensed_principal" ], "regulatory_models": [ "bank_only", "narrow_bank", "bank_and_nonbank_partnership", "emi" ], "regulatory_model_taxonomy_source": "https://digitalfinance.worldbank.org/topics/e-money-regulation-supervision/e-money-institutions", "regulatory_model_assignment": "The four-model taxonomy is the World Bank's. The per-market assignment below is ours, made from each market's own regulator pages. The World Bank publishes the models and a role matrix, not a country-by-country classification, so do not attribute the assignment to it.", "verification_levels": [ "primary", "not_primary" ], "verification_definition": { "primary": "The figure or rule was read directly from the regulator's own page or from the statute, on the date recorded in the cell.", "not_primary": "We could not read it from the regulator or the statute on the date checked. The reason is stated in the cell. No figure is inferred, and no threshold is carried over from a vendor page." }, "disclaimer": "Reflects published statutory and regulator requirements, not supervisory decisions. A regulator may impose additional conditions, and a published threshold does not guarantee an authorisation outcome. Not legal advice." }, "payment_institution_ladder": { "note": "The payment institution capital ladder is a separate instrument family from e-money. It is reproduced here because the ranking corpus attributes it to a single vendor citing PSD2 Article 7, which is not fetchable (EUR-Lex returns HTTP 202 with a zero-byte body). We verified it instead against two independent national transpositions, which agree exactly.", "currency": "EUR", "rows": [ { "service": "Account information services only", "initial_capital": null, "initial_capital_label": "None", "sources": [ { "market": "uk", "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/752/schedule/3", "source_ref": "Payment Services Regulations 2017, Schedule 3, Part 1, para 2 (services in Sch 1 para 1(h))", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" } ] }, { "service": "Money remittance", "initial_capital": { "amount": 20000, "currency": "EUR" }, "sources": [ { "market": "uk", "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/752/schedule/3", "source_ref": "Payment Services Regulations 2017, Schedule 3, Part 1, para 2 (services in Sch 1 para 1(f))", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "market": "germany", "source_url": "https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/zag_2018/__12.html", "source_ref": "Zahlungsdiensteaufsichtsgesetz (ZAG) section 12 no. 3(a)", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" } ] }, { "service": "Payment initiation services", "initial_capital": { "amount": 50000, "currency": "EUR" }, "sources": [ { "market": "uk", "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/752/schedule/3", "source_ref": "Payment Services Regulations 2017, Schedule 3, Part 1, para 2 (services in Sch 1 para 1(g))", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "market": "germany", "source_url": "https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/zag_2018/__12.html", "source_ref": "Zahlungsdiensteaufsichtsgesetz (ZAG) section 12 no. 3(b)", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" } ] }, { "service": "Other payment services, including executing payment transactions and issuing payment instruments", "initial_capital": { "amount": 125000, "currency": "EUR" }, "sources": [ { "market": "uk", "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/752/schedule/3", "source_ref": "Payment Services Regulations 2017, Schedule 3, Part 1, para 2 (services in Sch 1 para 1(a) to (e))", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "market": "germany", "source_url": "https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/zag_2018/__12.html", "source_ref": "Zahlungsdiensteaufsichtsgesetz (ZAG) section 12 no. 3(c)", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" } ] }, { "service": "Issuing electronic money", "initial_capital": { "amount": 350000, "currency": "EUR" }, "sources": [ { "market": "uk", "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2011/99/schedule/2", "source_ref": "Electronic Money Regulations 2011, Schedule 2, para 2", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "market": "germany", "source_url": "https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/zag_2018/__12.html", "source_ref": "Zahlungsdiensteaufsichtsgesetz (ZAG) section 12 no. 3(d)", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" } ] } ] }, "markets": [ { "market": "uk", "country": "United Kingdom", "regulator": { "name": "Financial Conduct Authority", "abbr": "FCA", "url": "https://www.fca.org.uk/firms/electronic-money-payment-institutions" }, "regulatory_model": "emi", "threshold_currency": "EUR", "paths": [ { "path_type": "full_authorisation", "instrument_name": "Authorised Electronic Money Institution (AEMI)", "available": true, "initial_capital": { "amount": 350000, "currency": "EUR" }, "ceilings": null, "note": "Statutory wording: \"an amount of initial capital of at least 350,000 euro\". Denominated in euro in UK law, not in pounds.", "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2011/99/schedule/2", "source_ref": "Electronic Money Regulations 2011, Schedule 2, para 2", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "small_registered", "instrument_name": "Small Electronic Money Institution (SEMI)", "available": true, "initial_capital": { "amount": 0, "currency": "EUR", "conditional_rule": "at least 2% of average outstanding electronic money where that figure is 500,000 euro or more" }, "ceilings": [ { "metric": "average_outstanding_electronic_money", "max": 5000000, "currency": "EUR", "source_ref": "EMR 2011 reg 13(3)" }, { "metric": "monthly_average_payment_transactions_12m", "max": 3000000, "currency": "EUR", "source_ref": "EMR 2011 reg 13(4)" } ], "note": "The route the ranking corpus names but never quantifies. Registration rather than authorisation, subject to both ceilings.", "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2011/99/regulation/13", "source_ref": "Electronic Money Regulations 2011, regulation 13", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "agent_distributor", "instrument_name": "Agent or distributor of an authorised firm", "available": true, "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "The agent is not separately authorised. Its principal is responsible for it and registers it with the FCA.", "source_url": "https://www.fca.org.uk/firms/apply-emoney-payment-institution/emi", "source_ref": "FCA, Electronic money institution applicants", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "licensed_principal", "instrument_name": "Operating under a licensed principal", "available": true, "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "The World Bank calls this a bank and non-bank partnership model.", "source_url": "https://digitalfinance.worldbank.org/topics/e-money-regulation-supervision/bank-and-non-bank-partnerships", "source_ref": "World Bank, DFS regulatory models", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" } ], "product_shape_map": { "hold_funds_for_others": "full_authorisation", "issue_accounts_ibans": "full_authorisation", "issue_cards": "full_authorisation", "move_money": "payment_institution_may_suffice", "accept_payments_own_account_only": "no_licence_required" } }, { "market": "germany", "country": "Germany", "regulator": { "name": "Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht", "abbr": "BaFin", "url": "https://www.bafin.de/EN/unternehmen-maerkte/erlaubnis-registrierung/zahlungsdienste-zahlungsinstitute/zahlungsdienste-zahlungsinstitute_node_en.html" }, "regulatory_model": "emi", "threshold_currency": "EUR", "paths": [ { "path_type": "full_authorisation", "instrument_name": "E-Geld-Institut (e-money institution)", "available": true, "initial_capital": { "amount": 350000, "currency": "EUR" }, "ceilings": null, "note": "Authorisation to conduct e-money business is required under ZAG section 11. The initial-capital figure sits in the refusal ground at ZAG section 12 no. 3(d): the equivalent of at least 350,000 euro.", "source_url": "https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/zag_2018/__12.html", "source_ref": "Zahlungsdiensteaufsichtsgesetz (ZAG) section 12 no. 3(d), with section 11 for the authorisation requirement", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "small_registered", "instrument_name": "No registered small e-money tier identified", "available": "not_published", "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "The ZAG provides exemptions under section 2 rather than a registered small e-money tier equivalent to the UK SEMI. We did not verify an equivalent route on the date checked, so this is recorded as not published rather than as unavailable.", "source_url": "https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/zag_2018/__11.html", "source_ref": "Zahlungsdiensteaufsichtsgesetz (ZAG) section 11", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "agent_distributor", "instrument_name": "Agent acting for an institution under ZAG section 25", "available": true, "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "BaFin maintains a payment institutions register that records the agents acting for an institution under section 25, with the start and end date of each agent's activity. The agent is entered by its principal rather than separately authorised.", "source_url": "https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/zag_2018/__43.html", "source_ref": "Zahlungsdiensteaufsichtsgesetz (ZAG) section 43(1) no. 4, with section 25", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "licensed_principal", "instrument_name": "Operating under a licensed principal", "available": true, "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "The World Bank calls this a bank and non-bank partnership model.", "source_url": "https://digitalfinance.worldbank.org/topics/e-money-regulation-supervision/bank-and-non-bank-partnerships", "source_ref": "World Bank, DFS regulatory models", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" } ], "product_shape_map": { "hold_funds_for_others": "full_authorisation", "issue_accounts_ibans": "full_authorisation", "issue_cards": "full_authorisation", "move_money": "payment_institution_may_suffice", "accept_payments_own_account_only": "no_licence_required" } }, { "market": "usa", "country": "United States", "regulator": { "name": "Financial Crimes Enforcement Network", "abbr": "FinCEN", "url": "https://www.fincen.gov/resources/money-services-business-msb-registration" }, "regulatory_model": "bank_and_nonbank_partnership", "threshold_currency": "USD", "paths": [ { "path_type": "full_authorisation", "instrument_name": "State money transmitter license, plus federal FinCEN MSB registration", "available": true, "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "There is no single federal licence. A money services business must register with the Department of the Treasury, and money transmitter licences are issued separately by each state, which sets its own net-worth and surety-bond minimums. Registration is renewed every two years. This two-layer shape is why money transmitter license carries several times the US search volume of emi license.", "source_url": "https://www.fincen.gov/resources/money-services-business-msb-registration", "source_ref": "FinCEN, Money Services Business (MSB) Registration, 31 CFR 1022.380", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "small_registered", "instrument_name": "No federal small tier identified", "available": "not_published", "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "FinCEN registration has limited exceptions rather than a small registered tier. State-level thresholds vary and were not verified market by market.", "source_url": "https://www.fincen.gov/resources/money-services-business-msb-registration", "source_ref": "FinCEN, Money Services Business (MSB) Registration", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "agent_distributor", "instrument_name": "Agent of another money services business", "available": true, "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "FinCEN states it directly: a person that is a money services business solely because that person serves as an agent of another money services business is not required to register. State licensing may still apply to the principal.", "source_url": "https://www.fincen.gov/resources/money-services-business-msb-registration", "source_ref": "FinCEN, Money Services Business (MSB) Registration, 31 CFR 1022.380", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "licensed_principal", "instrument_name": "Operating under a licensed principal", "available": true, "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "The World Bank calls this a bank and non-bank partnership model.", "source_url": "https://digitalfinance.worldbank.org/topics/e-money-regulation-supervision/bank-and-non-bank-partnerships", "source_ref": "World Bank, DFS regulatory models", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" } ], "product_shape_map": { "hold_funds_for_others": "full_authorisation", "issue_accounts_ibans": "full_authorisation", "issue_cards": "full_authorisation", "move_money": "full_authorisation", "accept_payments_own_account_only": "no_licence_required" } }, { "market": "canada", "country": "Canada", "regulator": { "name": "Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada", "abbr": "FINTRAC", "url": "https://fintrac-canafe.canada.ca/msb-esm/msb-eng" }, "regulatory_model": "bank_and_nonbank_partnership", "threshold_currency": "CAD", "paths": [ { "path_type": "full_authorisation", "instrument_name": "Money services business (MSB) registration", "available": true, "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "Registration rather than an authorisation with a capital floor. FINTRAC publishes no initial-capital requirement. There are two categories, Canadian money services businesses and foreign money services businesses.", "source_url": "https://fintrac-canafe.canada.ca/msb-esm/msb-eng", "source_ref": "FINTRAC, Money services businesses: FINTRAC's requirements", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "small_registered", "instrument_name": "No small registered tier identified", "available": "not_published", "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "Registration is triggered by offering a listed service and having a place of business in Canada, with no published volume threshold below which registration is waived.", "source_url": "https://fintrac-canafe.canada.ca/msb-esm/msb-eng", "source_ref": "FINTRAC, Money services businesses: FINTRAC's requirements", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "agent_distributor", "instrument_name": "Agent or mandatary of a registered money services business", "available": true, "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "FINTRAC states it directly: you are not a money services business if you offer services strictly as an agent or mandatary for a money services business, and it is the money services business you act for that has to register. Separate agent eligibility obligations on the principal came into force on 1 October 2025, with a transition to 1 October 2027 for agents engaged before that date.", "source_url": "https://fintrac-canafe.canada.ca/msb-esm/msb-eng", "source_ref": "FINTRAC, Who is not a money services business; Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act, paras 5(h) and 5(h.1), subs 11.12(2)", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "licensed_principal", "instrument_name": "Operating under a licensed principal", "available": true, "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "The World Bank calls this a bank and non-bank partnership model.", "source_url": "https://digitalfinance.worldbank.org/topics/e-money-regulation-supervision/bank-and-non-bank-partnerships", "source_ref": "World Bank, DFS regulatory models", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" } ], "product_shape_map": { "hold_funds_for_others": "full_authorisation", "issue_accounts_ibans": "full_authorisation", "issue_cards": "full_authorisation", "move_money": "full_authorisation", "accept_payments_own_account_only": "no_licence_required" } }, { "market": "philippines", "country": "Philippines", "regulator": { "name": "Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas", "abbr": "BSP", "url": "https://www.bsp.gov.ph/" }, "regulatory_model": "emi", "threshold_currency": "PHP", "paths": [ { "path_type": "full_authorisation", "instrument_name": "Electronic Money Issuer (EMI)", "available": true, "initial_capital": { "amount": 100000000, "currency": "PHP" }, "ceilings": null, "note": "Benchmark capital of 100 million pesos for the E-Money Issuer registration category, as authorised under Subsection X780.2 of the Manual of Regulations for Banks. The figure is denominated in pesos, not euro.", "source_url": "https://www.bsp.gov.ph/Regulations/Issuances/2017/c942.pdf", "source_ref": "BSP Circular No. 942 (2017), Sec. 4511N.2, registration category C", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "small_registered", "instrument_name": "Small-scale operator category (remittance, not e-money issuance)", "available": "not_published", "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "BSP Circular 942 sets a small-scale operator category with benchmark capital below 50 million pesos, but it applies to remittance agents rather than to e-money issuance. No reduced-capital e-money tier was verified.", "source_url": "https://www.bsp.gov.ph/Regulations/Issuances/2017/c942.pdf", "source_ref": "BSP Circular No. 942 (2017), Sec. 4511N.2, registration categories A and B", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "agent_distributor", "instrument_name": "Remittance Sub-Agent accredited through a principal", "available": true, "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "A sub-agent is any person authorised by its principal to perform part of the business on the principal's behalf, which the circular states may include a person allowed to do so by an E-Money Issuer. Accreditation runs through the principal.", "source_url": "https://www.bsp.gov.ph/Regulations/Issuances/2017/c942.pdf", "source_ref": "BSP Circular No. 942 (2017), definitions and accreditation of Remittance Sub-Agents", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "licensed_principal", "instrument_name": "Operating under a licensed principal", "available": true, "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "The World Bank calls this a bank and non-bank partnership model.", "source_url": "https://digitalfinance.worldbank.org/topics/e-money-regulation-supervision/bank-and-non-bank-partnerships", "source_ref": "World Bank, DFS regulatory models", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" } ], "product_shape_map": { "hold_funds_for_others": "full_authorisation", "issue_accounts_ibans": "full_authorisation", "issue_cards": "full_authorisation", "move_money": "full_authorisation", "accept_payments_own_account_only": "no_licence_required" } }, { "market": "nigeria", "country": "Nigeria", "regulator": { "name": "Central Bank of Nigeria", "abbr": "CBN", "url": "https://www.cbn.gov.ng/PaymentsSystem/PSPs.html" }, "regulatory_model": "emi", "threshold_currency": "NGN", "paths": [ { "path_type": "full_authorisation", "instrument_name": "Mobile Money Operator (MMO), or Switching and Processing", "available": true, "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "The CBN licenses by category rather than through a single e-money authorisation. Its own register of payment service providers lists Mobile Money Operator, Switching and Processing, Payment Solution Service Provider, Payment Terminal Service Provider, Super-Agent, Payments Service Holding and Payments Terminal Service Aggregator. The capital schedule sits in a separate circular that returns HTTP 403 to both direct fetch and third-party parsing, so no capital figure is published here.", "source_url": "https://www.cbn.gov.ng/PaymentsSystem/PSPs.html", "source_ref": "CBN, Payment Service Providers register, licence categories", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "small_registered", "instrument_name": "Payment Solution Service Provider (PSSP) authorisation", "available": true, "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "A narrower authorisation category than Switching and Processing, and the largest category on the CBN register by count. It is a separate authorisation, not an exemption from one.", "source_url": "https://www.cbn.gov.ng/PaymentsSystem/PSPs.html", "source_ref": "CBN, Payment Service Providers register, PSSP authorisation", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "agent_distributor", "instrument_name": "Super-Agent authorisation", "available": true, "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "Nigeria's agent route is itself a CBN authorisation category rather than a registration-free arrangement, which is the important difference from the United States and Canada.", "source_url": "https://www.cbn.gov.ng/PaymentsSystem/PSPs.html", "source_ref": "CBN, Payment Service Providers register, Super-Agent authorisation", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "licensed_principal", "instrument_name": "Operating under a licensed principal", "available": true, "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "The World Bank calls this a bank and non-bank partnership model.", "source_url": "https://digitalfinance.worldbank.org/topics/e-money-regulation-supervision/bank-and-non-bank-partnerships", "source_ref": "World Bank, DFS regulatory models", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" } ], "product_shape_map": { "hold_funds_for_others": "full_authorisation", "issue_accounts_ibans": "full_authorisation", "issue_cards": "full_authorisation", "move_money": "full_authorisation", "accept_payments_own_account_only": "no_licence_required" } }, { "market": "australia", "country": "Australia", "regulator": { "name": "Australian Securities and Investments Commission", "abbr": "ASIC", "url": "https://asic.gov.au/for-finance-professionals/afs-licensees/" }, "regulatory_model": "bank_and_nonbank_partnership", "threshold_currency": "AUD", "paths": [ { "path_type": "full_authorisation", "instrument_name": "Australian financial services (AFS) licence", "available": true, "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "ASIC licenses the financial-services conduct. A separate AUSTRAC enrolment or registration obligation applies to remittance and digital-currency exchange activity and could not be verified to primary, see the row below.", "source_url": "https://asic.gov.au/for-finance-professionals/afs-licensees/", "source_ref": "ASIC, AFS licensees", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "small_registered", "instrument_name": "AUSTRAC enrolment or registration obligation", "available": "not_published", "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "Not verified to primary. austrac.gov.au did not respond on the date checked, consistent with prior recorded attempts, so the AUSTRAC half of the Australian requirement is labelled rather than guessed.", "source_url": "https://www.austrac.gov.au/", "source_ref": "AUSTRAC, not retrieved", "verification": "not_primary", "not_primary_reason": "source times out (no HTTP response on three recorded attempts)", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "agent_distributor", "instrument_name": "Authorised representative of an AFS licensee", "available": "not_published", "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "Australia operates an authorised-representative regime, but we did not read its scope from an ASIC page on the date checked, so it is recorded as not published rather than as available.", "source_url": "https://asic.gov.au/for-finance-professionals/afs-licensees/do-you-need-an-afs-licence/", "source_ref": "ASIC, Do you need an AFS licence", "verification": "not_primary", "not_primary_reason": "specific representative-regime page not resolved on the date checked", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "licensed_principal", "instrument_name": "Operating under a licensed principal", "available": true, "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "The World Bank calls this a bank and non-bank partnership model.", "source_url": "https://digitalfinance.worldbank.org/topics/e-money-regulation-supervision/bank-and-non-bank-partnerships", "source_ref": "World Bank, DFS regulatory models", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" } ], "product_shape_map": { "hold_funds_for_others": "full_authorisation", "issue_accounts_ibans": "full_authorisation", "issue_cards": "full_authorisation", "move_money": "full_authorisation", "accept_payments_own_account_only": "no_licence_required" } }, { "market": "brazil", "country": "Brazil", "regulator": { "name": "Banco Central do Brasil", "abbr": "BCB", "url": "https://www.bcb.gov.br/en/financialstability/paymentinstitutionauthorization" }, "regulatory_model": "emi", "threshold_currency": "BRL", "paths": [ { "path_type": "full_authorisation", "instrument_name": "Payment institution (instituição de pagamento), including the electronic money issuer category", "available": true, "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "Not verified to primary. The BCB authorisation page and its normative endpoints all return HTTP 200 with an identical 2,871-byte JavaScript-only shell, so no instrument-level text or capital figure could be read from the regulator. A capital figure circulates in secondary sources; we do not print it, because a number we could not read at the source is exactly the kind of cell this dataset exists to avoid.", "source_url": "https://www.bcb.gov.br/en/financialstability/paymentinstitutionauthorization", "source_ref": "BCB, payment institution authorisation, page not machine-readable", "verification": "not_primary", "not_primary_reason": "regulator page returns HTTP 200 with a JavaScript-only shell; no text retrievable by direct fetch or by third-party parsing", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "small_registered", "instrument_name": "Not verified", "available": "not_published", "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "source_url": "https://www.bcb.gov.br/en/financialstability/paymentinstitutionauthorization", "source_ref": "BCB, page not machine-readable", "verification": "not_primary", "not_primary_reason": "regulator page returns HTTP 200 with a JavaScript-only shell", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "agent_distributor", "instrument_name": "Not verified", "available": "not_published", "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "source_url": "https://www.bcb.gov.br/en/financialstability/paymentinstitutionauthorization", "source_ref": "BCB, page not machine-readable", "verification": "not_primary", "not_primary_reason": "regulator page returns HTTP 200 with a JavaScript-only shell", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "licensed_principal", "instrument_name": "Operating under a licensed principal", "available": true, "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "The World Bank calls this a bank and non-bank partnership model.", "source_url": "https://digitalfinance.worldbank.org/topics/e-money-regulation-supervision/bank-and-non-bank-partnerships", "source_ref": "World Bank, DFS regulatory models", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" } ], "product_shape_map": { "hold_funds_for_others": "full_authorisation", "issue_accounts_ibans": "full_authorisation", "issue_cards": "full_authorisation", "move_money": "full_authorisation", "accept_payments_own_account_only": "no_licence_required" } }, { "market": "vietnam", "country": "Vietnam", "regulator": { "name": "State Bank of Vietnam", "abbr": "SBV", "url": "https://www.sbv.gov.vn/en" }, "regulatory_model": "bank_and_nonbank_partnership", "threshold_currency": "VND", "paths": [ { "path_type": "full_authorisation", "instrument_name": "Intermediary payment services licence", "available": true, "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "Not verified to primary. The SBV English portal responds at its root but we could not locate an instrument-level page on the date checked. A Vietnamese e-money capital threshold circulates in secondary sources and is deliberately not reproduced here.", "source_url": "https://www.sbv.gov.vn/en", "source_ref": "SBV, English portal root", "verification": "not_primary", "not_primary_reason": "regulator confirmed at portal root; instrument-level page not located", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "small_registered", "instrument_name": "Not verified", "available": "not_published", "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "source_url": "https://www.sbv.gov.vn/en", "source_ref": "SBV, English portal root", "verification": "not_primary", "not_primary_reason": "instrument-level page not located", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "agent_distributor", "instrument_name": "Not verified", "available": "not_published", "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "source_url": "https://www.sbv.gov.vn/en", "source_ref": "SBV, English portal root", "verification": "not_primary", "not_primary_reason": "instrument-level page not located", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" }, { "path_type": "licensed_principal", "instrument_name": "Operating under a licensed principal", "available": true, "initial_capital": null, "ceilings": null, "note": "The World Bank calls this a bank and non-bank partnership model.", "source_url": "https://digitalfinance.worldbank.org/topics/e-money-regulation-supervision/bank-and-non-bank-partnerships", "source_ref": "World Bank, DFS regulatory models", "verification": "primary", "verified_date": "2026-08-03" } ], "product_shape_map": { "hold_funds_for_others": "full_authorisation", "issue_accounts_ibans": "full_authorisation", "issue_cards": "full_authorisation", "move_money": "full_authorisation", "accept_payments_own_account_only": "no_licence_required" } } ], "vendor_reported": { "note": "Figures that only a vendor publishes. These are NEVER dataset cells for a market row and are never asserted as statutory or as ours. They live here so the quarterly refresh script re-fetches them, because a vendor page is far likelier to change than a statute.", "rows": [ { "claim": "UK EMI licence application fee", "amount": 5000, "currency": "GBP", "vendor": "Buckingham Capital Consulting", "source_url": "https://www.buckinghamcapitalconsulting.com/authorised-emi-uk", "selected_by": "Google People Also Ask, cost question, both US and UK head SERPs", "verification": "vendor_single_source", "verified_date": "2026-08-03", "handling": "Attribute to the vendor by name and label single-source. Used on the page only to separate an application fee from initial capital, which is how the 350,000 pounds error is born." } ] }, "corpus_frame": { "note": "The competitor sample frame, stored as data so it is re-derivable instead of living only in prose. The dossier's own instruction was to re-pull before ship and restate; this object is what that produced.", "queries": [ { "keyword": "emi license", "location_name": "United States", "language_code": "en", "depth": 10, "organic_positions": 9 }, { "keyword": "emi licence", "location_name": "United Kingdom", "language_code": "en", "depth": 10, "organic_positions": 8 } ], "pulled_date": "2026-08-03", "organic_positions_total": 17, "distinct_domains": 14, "domains": [ "fca.org.uk", "advapay.eu", "crassula.io", "eps.edenred.com", "digitalfinance.worldbank.org", "buckinghamcapitalconsulting.com", "en.wikipedia.org", "linkedin.com", "sdk.finance", "stablr.com", "dashdevs.com", "prifinance.com", "help.bvnk.com", "ifbusiness.uk" ], "parsed_in_full": [ "fca.org.uk", "advapay.eu", "crassula.io", "buckinghamcapitalconsulting.com", "eps.edenred.com", "digitalfinance.worldbank.org" ], "parsed_all_inside_frame": true, "commercial_domains": 10, "non_commercial_domains": 4, "non_commercial_detail": "fca.org.uk (regulator), digitalfinance.worldbank.org (multilateral), en.wikipedia.org (encyclopaedia), linkedin.com (one practitioner's post). None publishes the sub-authorisation thresholds.", "instability_observed": "The UK query was pulled twice on 2026-08-03 and organic position 7 changed hands between em.bank and buckinghamcapitalconsulting.com. The count of 8 held in both pulls; the composition of that one slot did not. Any claim about whether a single named domain ranks must therefore be re-pulled, not carried over." } }