Passporting (EEA)
The right of a firm licensed in one EEA state to operate across all 30 EEA states on that single licence.
Passporting is the promise of the single market: one Lithuanian EMI licence can serve Germany, France and Spain. In practice a large share of licensed entities never passport beyond their home state (the measured share is below) - and post-Brexit, UK licences do not passport into the EEA at all, which is why UK fintechs hold second licences in Ireland, Lithuania or Malta.
For card issuing the same idea appears as BIN reach: where a sponsor may issue. Fintechnologica shows passporting reach per provider and per register entry.
Primary source: Directive (EU) 2015/2366 (PSD2) · EBA register of payment and e-money institutions (EUCLID)
In the verified data
- Across 1,921 EEA licences in the official registers (as of 2026-09-18), 40% are not passported beyond the home state and 31% cover all 30 EEA states.
- By class, EEA-wide passports cover 55% of e-money institutions, 24% of payment institutions and 28% of MiCA CASPs.
- The 733 UK firms on the FCA register carry no EEA passport at all since Brexit - the same split leaves 3 of the live BIN sponsors able to issue only in the UK or Gibraltar.
Recomputed from the catalogue and the official EBA, ESMA and FCA registers on every build — how we verify.
Questions to ask a provider
- Which EEA states are covered by your passport notifications - service by service, not just entity by entity?
- Do you serve the UK and the EEA from separate licensed entities after Brexit?
- Will you serve my market cross-border, or through a branch or agent established there?