Electronic money institution licence (Malta)

At a glance

What it lets you do

• Issuing electronic money
• Execution of payment transactions
• Money remittance
• Issuing payment instruments and acquiring payment transactions
• Payment initiation services
• Account information services

• Issuing electronic money. Issuing monetary value stored electronically against funds received, redeemable at par and accepted by third parties as payment.
• Execution of payment transactions. Executing direct debits, card payments and credit transfers, including standing orders, from a payment account.
• Money remittance. Receiving funds from a payer solely to transfer them to a payee or another provider, without opening payment accounts.
• Issuing payment instruments and acquiring payment transactions. Issuing cards or other payment instruments to payers, and acquiring card and other payment transactions for merchants.
• Payment initiation services. Initiating a payment order at the user's request from an account held with another provider, as in open banking.
• Account information services. Providing consolidated online information on one or more payment accounts the user holds with other providers.

Where it is valid

Cost

How long it takes

Statutory: 3 months from receipt of a complete application¹. Observed: not published. The statutory clock usually starts only when the regulator treats the application as complete, and pauses while it waits for answers to its questions.

Buying a company that already holds it

Prior approval required. Acquiring or increasing a qualifying holding needs the MFSA's prior approval. For payment and e-money institutions the Financial Institutions Act sets the thresholds at 20%, 30% and 50%; for banks the Banking Act adds a 60-working-day assessment period that can be extended.¹

Laws behind it

• Directive 2009/110/EC on the taking up, pursuit and prudential supervision of the business of electronic money institutions: Directive 2009/110/EC