Glossary
IBAN sponsor
A provider that opens accounts and issues IBANs - often with local country codes - to fintechs under its own EMI, PI or banking licence (IBAN-as-a-service).
If your product holds balances or receives transfers, it needs accounts and IBANs. An IBAN sponsor provides them under its licence: virtual IBANs for reconciliation, safeguarding accounts, SEPA/SWIFT access.
The differentiator is the country code: a German employer may (unlawfully, but routinely) reject a Lithuanian IBAN - the "IBAN discrimination" problem. Sponsors that issue local DE/FR/ES IBANs remove that friction, which is why Fintechnologica tracks exactly which country codes each sponsor can issue.