PI licensing path in United Kingdom.
PI (Payment Institution) licence in United Kingdom is supervised by Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Time-to-licence is typically 6–12 months; United Kingdom licences do not benefit from EU passporting.
What this licence allows.
Provide payment services (transfers, acquiring, remittance) without issuing e-money.
Post-Brexit, UK EMIs and PIs no longer benefit from EU passporting. UK rules are largely mirror-image of EMD2/PSD2 with FCA-specific consumer-duty overlay.
- 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 PI in United Kingdom.
Acquire PI directly from FCA
Time: 6–12 months. Initial capital: €20,000 – €125,000 (varies by service). Full control, full obligations. Coreal helps with the IT-security questionnaire and three-lines-of-defence model.
Partner with a United Kingdom licence-holder
Partner with an existing FCA-licensed entity. Coreal contributes the regulated tech stack; partner contributes the licence.
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 PI regulator in United Kingdom?
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). They oversee authorisation, ongoing supervision and enforcement for PI licence holders in United Kingdom.
How long does PI authorisation take in United Kingdom?
Typically 6–12 months end-to-end. The bottleneck is usually the regulator's risk and IT-security questionnaire — plan for ≥4 months of regulator dialogue.
Does this licence work cross-border?
No. United Kingdom licences do not benefit from EU passporting — you would need a separate authorisation in each EU member state of operation.
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.