E-money and payments · FINTRAC / Bank of Canada
Canadian MSB registration and retail payment activities
Canada regulates payments through registration rather than a single licence, with money services businesses registering with FINTRAC and payment service providers now falling under a dedicated retail payments framework overseen by the Bank of Canada. The combination is more demanding than registration language suggests.
The regulator
FINTRAC supervises money services businesses for anti-money-laundering compliance and has become notably more active in enforcement. Bank of Canada oversight of retail payment activities is now live, adding operational risk and fund safeguarding obligations to firms that previously faced only financial crime requirements, and an applicant that is not registered with FINTRAC can expect that to block the payments registration too.
What the licence permits
Regulated under the FINTRAC / Bank of Canada
- Provide money transmission and currency exchange services
- Perform retail payment activities for Canadian end users
- Serve a G7 market adjacent to the United States
- Operate in a bilingual English and French environment
Who it suits
Firms serving Canadian consumers or businesses, and North American groups that want a lighter entry point than full US multistate licensing.
Market access
Access to the Canadian market. It is not a route into the United States, which licenses separately.
What to weigh
Provincial rules add a further layer in some activities, notably in Quebec. Registration is not a light-touch alternative to licensing, and supervision has tightened.
We run the Canada application end to end
Whether you build from new or acquire an existing licensed entity, BrokLicense handles incorporation, the regulator application, the AML and compliance framework, safeguarding and banking arrangements, and the operating stack. You stay the principal. We do the work, in confidence, and stay on for compliance once you are live.
Cost, capital, and timelines depend on your model and are set out in a first consultation, under NDA, not published here.
Other permissions in Canada
Related reading
- EMI vs Payment Institution: Which Licence Does Your Payments Business Actually Need?An e-money licence and a payment institution licence look interchangeable and are not. One lets you hold stored value, the other only moves it. Here is the line.
- How to Get an EMI Licence: What Electronic Money Authorisation Actually InvolvesAn EMI application is a business case, not a form. Here is what regulators examine, in what order, and where applications realistically stall.
- Where to Base an EMI: Choosing a Jurisdiction for an E-Money LicenceEvery EEA e-money licence passports to the same thirty markets, so the choice is not about reach. It is about the regulator, the banking, and the substance you can staff.
- Safeguarding: The Requirement That Decides Whether Your EMI Survives SupervisionSafeguarding is the single obligation supervisors test hardest at payments firms, and the one most often got wrong. Here is what compliant actually looks like.
E-money and payments in other Americas jurisdictions
- United StatesState regulators / FinCEN
- British Virgin IslandsBVI FSC
- Cayman IslandsCIMA
- BahamasCentral Bank of The Bahamas
Discuss your mandate in confidence
Every engagement begins under a mutual NDA. Set out the firm you intend to operate and the timeline you are working to, and you leave the first consultation with a recommended jurisdiction, the route to the licence, and a defined scope of work.
Prefer email? info@broklicense.com