AEMI license in Latvia

Persons who received it have the right to issue e-money, transfer and exchange it.

The AEMI permit is issued for an indefinite period. It allows conducting business related to virtual money within the EU Economic Area. One permit is enough to work in all states included in the EEA.

Which services you could supply

You may offer remittance favors and certain other monetary favors with an AEMI permission, but you may not act as a bank or use the word “bank” in your name or marketing materials.

Institutions that work with e-money can usually:

• Accept consumer money and convert it to e-money, but do not process it.
• Clients can use e-money accounts as digital wallets, but they cannot use an overdraft or earn interest.
• Offer direct debits, account-to-account transfers and debit cards, but not credit as a stand-alone product.
• Offer some products for digital financial services like currency exchange

You can join the Single Euro Payments Area by obtaining a permission to create electronic money, which allows you to send and receive payments in the European currency under the same conditions and at competitive rates across Europe. Authorised electronic money institution license in Latvia given in EU countries can travel with their holders, permitting them to supply their services in other EU and EEA states. Despite this, applications are only approved by national financial services regulators. The ECB is not a party. In addition, the process for acquiring a permission is simpler and faster.

Advantages of obtaining AEMI permission in Latvia

On transparent and fairly favorable terms, it is possible to obtain permit to supply a wide range of payment services in Lithuania, only a banking permission can give more opportunities.

In favor of Lithuania as a lawfullment for acquiring an AEMI license, the following arguments can be distinguished:

• Relatively short delivery time.
• You don’t have to go through the licensing process again.
• The use of English in business-company.
• Access to the SEPA zone.

Authorization process

1. Preliminary meeting before applying. Agents of corporations are obliged to participate in preliminary meetings with representatives of the Bank of Lithuania. The purpose of the initial meeting is to answer questions that may have arisen at the pre-application stage and to find out what monetary favors the applicant plans to supply.
2. Submission of an application and documents to the Supervisory Service of the Bank of Lithuania. Within 5 working days, the Supervision Service checks whether all the necessary papers are submitted, and if no shortcomings are found, the request is accepted for consideration.
3. Evaluation of the request and legal papers. The Board of the Bank of country analyzes the submitted info and documents and decides whether to issue a license or refuse to issue one.
4. Issuance of a license or refusal to issue a Authorised e-money license in Latvia.

Requirements for AEMI license in Latvia

• There are minimum capital demand in the amount of 350,000€, but the total number of shares or voting rights owned by sharers holding 10% or more of the authorized capital or voting rights is sufficient to meet the demands of Article 21 of the Law;
• The average amount of e-money that is in revolution of an virtual money establishment in the course of economic activity is no more than two million euros;
• The board and legal address of the enrolled institution (official seat) must be located in the Republic of Latvia;
• Such an establishment may use for commercial purposes only the territory of the Republic of Latvia;
• The table or board participants of an e-money establishment must be of good standing and have the necessary education and knowledge.

How to get AEMI license in Latvia

In order to obtain an AEMI license in Latvia, you need to go through several stages. The first step is to prepare for submitting a request. At this stage, you should have a ready business plan, a description of the planned business, a description of the structure of the shareholders (participants) of the commercial company, confirmation of the initial capital, information about the members of the board and council, important sharers and the person directly responsible for the management of the institution’s activities, a description of the continuity mechanisms of the commercial activity of the establishment, PMC and other necessary papers in accordance with FCMC Regulation No. 138.

The next step is to submit all the needed documents to the Monetary and Fund Market Commission (FCMC). If there are gaps in the submitted documents, the Commission may ask the corporation to fill them in or provide additional information. If the request is complete, the FCMC sends a letter to the entrepreneur informing them that the evaluation of the authorization application has begun.