Why Global FinTech Companies Should Have the EU License?

Today, I’d like to summarize for you what would be the core advantages of having a licensed and properly regulated status in the EU for a global FinTech or crypto company.

• Large and relatively unified market (thanks to unified payments, consumer protection, privacy, security, and other relevant regulations) allowing to serve a potential population of ~500 million people. Europe has a relatively high GDP per capita, which translates into higher disposable income and higher spending power. 
• EU banking system and overall regulatory approach in the EU is considered to be one of the most FinTech and crypto-friendly regulatory regimes. Especially for crypto businesses, it is substantially easier to close banking partnerships and open bank accounts in Europe – obviously if you are duly regulated and have AML controls in place.
• More and more non-crypto FinTechs and even retail brands will follow Tesla’s example and continue adding cryptocurrencies into their product portfolios or payment options. It is highly likely that most of these large companies, financial or commercial European partners will have a strong preference for partnering with the EU-based regulated financial institution to serve EU customers (so that they can have confidence in their AML, customer protection, transaction execution, SEPA, GDPR, and other regulatory requirements) as opposed to partnering with a US-based or Asian company.
• For most FinTech companies, fiat-in and fiat-out (or on/off-ramp) services are critical and hard to get. It is the biggest bottleneck and it is much easier to establish such services when you are regulated.
• Credit card processors and card issuers have geographic restrictions due to different interchange rates across the globe, therefore it is often required to have a seller of record or a card distributor legal entity in Europe to partner with Visa or Mastercard.

If you’d like to get clarity around what does the FinTech licensing process look like, how long it takes, and what do you need to have in place at each stage of the licensing process, you absolutely must join this 2-hour FinTech Licensing Workshop for Self-Starters on February 23rd-24th 2021!