EMI licensing path in Romania.
EMI (E-Money Institution) licence in Romania is supervised by Banca Națională a României (BNR). Time-to-licence is typically 9–15 months; EU/EEA passporting is available under EMD2 / PSD2.
What this licence allows.
Issue e-money (wallets, IBANs, prepaid cards); payment services where derived from e-money issuance.
Romania has emerged as a remittance origin/destination hub due to large diaspora flows. License timelines vary widely — engage BNR early.
- Corporate structure + beneficial ownership (UBO ≤ 25%)
- Initial capital deposited in a regulated EU/EEA bank
- Three-line-of-defence governance model
- AML programme + transaction monitoring policy
- Risk-based KYC + sanctions screening process
- ICT-security questionnaire (DORA-aligned from 2025)
- Outsourcing register (BSS, payment partners, cloud)
Three paths to EMI in Romania.
Acquire EMI directly from BNR
Time: 9–15 months. Initial capital: €350,000 (in RON equivalent). Full control, full obligations. Coreal helps with the IT-security questionnaire and three-lines-of-defence model.
Partner with an existing EU EMI
Use a sponsor EMI passport from another EU country (DE, FR, NL, etc.) and operate in Romania under freedom-of-services. Faster: 30–90 days vs 9–15 months.
Use the Coreal EMI passport
Coreal operates under its own EU EMI licence. Operator gets a fully-branded wallet without acquiring any licence. Ships in ~60 days.
Who is the EMI regulator in Romania?
Banca Națională a României (BNR). They oversee authorisation, ongoing supervision and enforcement for EMI licence holders in Romania.
How long does EMI authorisation take in Romania?
Typically 9–15 months end-to-end. The bottleneck is usually the regulator's risk and IT-security questionnaire — plan for ≥4 months of regulator dialogue.
Can a Romania EMI passport into the rest of the EU?
Yes. Romania is an EU member state, so a EMI authorised here can passport into all 27 EU/EEA countries under EMD2 / PSD2.
Bring the perimeter,
leave with a brief.
Read the Wave-1 runbook first.
The full 90-day launch sequence — phases, partner-bank gates, who signs off when. No form to read it.
Read the runbook →INDICATIVE DATA · Numbers and timelines reflect public regulator filings, vendor documentation and our own delivery experience. Per-engagement values vary with operator profile, BSS vintage and regulatory perimeter. Engage early for a fitted estimate under NDA.