The payment institution (PI) licence, explained
The most numerous licence class in European fintech: 1,383 payment institutions sit in the EEA and UK registers, and 95 verified providers in this catalogue operate under one. What PSD2 actually permits, the capital tiers, and where the EMI boundary runs.
What a payment institution may do
PSD2 defines eight payment services; a PI is authorised for the ones it applies for: placing and withdrawing cash on payment accounts, executing transfers and direct debits, issuing instruments and acquiring transactions, money remittance, payment initiation (PIS) and account information (AIS). This is the licence behind Europe's acquirers, payout providers, remittance firms and open-banking initiators.
The defining boundary: a PI moves money; it does not issue e-money. If your product holds stored customer balances — wallets, accounts your users treat as theirs, prepaid cards — you are in EMI territory. Funds a PI does hold in flight must be safeguarded, same principle as an EMI: ring-fenced, not deposit-guaranteed.
Capital tiers - priced by service
- EUR 20,000 — money remittance only;
- EUR 50,000 — payment initiation services;
- EUR 125,000 — the full service set (accounts, execution, acquiring, issuing).
Ongoing own funds then scale with payment volume. The lighter route: AISP registration — account information only, no initial capital, but mandatory professional indemnity insurance (217 AISPs sit in the registers). As everywhere, the working cost is the compliance operation, not the statutory floor; the umbrella-vs-own-licence decision is mapped in EMI licence vs BYOL — the logic applies to PIs identically.
Where PIs cluster
One authorisation passports EEA-wide, but the register data shows PIs clustering in the big home markets (the Netherlands, France and Germany lead), unlike the e-money world with its Lithuanian capital — the full geography, from our own register dataset, is in who holds Europe's fintech licences.
Verify any PI claim at source
Browse every payment institution in the official EEA and UK registers, pre-filtered: PIs in the European Fintech Index (1,383 of 2,579 licensed entities). In the catalogue, the licence-type filter surfaces the 95 verified PI providers — strongest among gateways and acquirers, open-banking providers and cross-border specialists.
The licence family
EMI licence — when the product holds stored value · Banking licence — deposits, credit and the EUR 100k guarantee · MiCA — crypto-asset services · EMI vs BYOL — umbrella or your own authorisation.
FAQ
What is the difference between a payment institution and an EMI?
A PI executes payments - transfers, acquiring, remittance, payment initiation - but does not issue e-money. If the product holds stored customer balances (wallets, accounts, prepaid cards), that is e-money and needs an EMI; if money only passes through on its way somewhere, a PI can carry it. The boundary case is holding funds longer than execution requires - that is where regulators start asking EMI questions.
How much capital does a PI licence require?
Initial capital under PSD2 is tiered by service: EUR 20,000 for money remittance only, EUR 50,000 for payment initiation, EUR 125,000 for the full set (accounts, execution, acquiring, issuing). Ongoing own-funds requirements then scale with payment volume. As with EMIs, the real cost is the compliance operation around the capital, not the capital itself.
Do AISPs need a full PI licence?
No - account information service providers use a lighter registration: no initial capital requirement, but mandatory professional indemnity insurance and the same fit-and-proper scrutiny. The trade-off is scope: registration covers account information only; the moment a firm initiates payments or holds funds, it needs authorisation.