Authorised payment institution in the United Kingdom

About This Company

Section 191F of FSMA 2000 designates acquiring control of an authorised firm without prior regulatory consent as a criminal offence. Any prospective purchaser planning to acquire an authorised payment institution in the United Kingdom must obtain prior approval from the Financial Conduct Authority. The statutory thresholds that trigger a mandatory notification are 10%, 20%, 30% and 50% of shares or voting rights, or acquiring status as a parent undertaking. Once the London regulator acknowledges receipt of a complete notification, a statutory assessment period of 60 business days commences pursuant to FSMA Section 189. The supervisor holds the legal power to pause this evaluation clock once for up to 30 business days if additional information is required from the applicants. Authorised payment institutions fall under the Payment Services Regulations 2017, in force since 2018-01-13. The regime incurs ongoing regulatory costs, including a GBP 2,000 standard minimum fee under Fee-block A.0, an extra fee of GBP 646 under Fee-block G.3 and a variable levy based on relevant payment turnover. This statutory authorisation provides domestic permissions across the United Kingdom but does not passport into other territories.