E-money and payments · GFSC
Gibraltar e-money and payment services licensing (GFSC)
Gibraltar has licensed e-money and payment firms for years and retains a pragmatic, accessible regulator with a genuine understanding of the sector. Its position changed with Brexit: the EEA passport is gone, and the jurisdiction now looks primarily to the United Kingdom.
The regulator
The Gibraltar Financial Services Commission is small enough to be reachable and experienced enough to be credible, a combination firms value during authorisation. It applies standards aligned to the UK model and expects real local presence on a small territory where presence is visible.
What the licence permits
Regulated under the GFSC
- Issue electronic money from a Gibraltar base
- Provide payment services to UK and international customers
- Operate under a regulator with long experience of the payments sector
- Base in an English-speaking common law jurisdiction
Who it suits
Firms whose priority market is the United Kingdom, and groups that want an accessible regulator and a compact operating base.
Market access
Access to the UK market under the arrangements between Gibraltar and the United Kingdom. There is no EEA passport, so EU customers require a separate authorisation.
What to weigh
The talent pool on the Rock is finite, and staffing a compliance function locally is a genuine constraint. Firms needing EU market access should treat Gibraltar as a UK-facing base rather than a European one.
We run the Gibraltar 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 Gibraltar
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 Europe jurisdictions
- United KingdomFCA
- ItalyBanca d'Italia
- GermanyBaFin
- SpainBanco de España
- AustriaFMA
- IrelandCentral Bank of Ireland
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