Wallester UK has received authorisation from the UK Financial Conduct Authority as an Authorised Electronic Money Institution.
The licence allows the company to operate within the UK regulatory framework, engage with local clients directly, and bring its card and embedded finance products to the UK market.
The FCA is the statutory body responsible for supervising financial services firms in the UK, overseeing standards in customer protection, compliance, financial crime prevention, and operational resilience. EMI authorisation is a prerequisite for issuing electronic money and providing related payment services to clients in the UK.
The authorisation followed an extended preparation period involving teams across compliance, risk, legal, finance, operations, product, and technology functions. According to the company, the process required extensive documentation, internal reviews, system testing, and sustained engagement with the regulator.
Products and market strategy
With the regulatory foundation in place, Wallester plans to bring two core offerings to the UK market: Wallester Business, an expense management and corporate card platform, and its White-Label solutions, which allow businesses to launch branded card programmes and Embedded Finance products. Both are supported by the company's proprietary payment processing platform, developed in-house and built on Amazon Web Services infrastructure.
In an exclusive quote for The Paypers, Julian Brand, UK CEO of Business Expense platform and White Label Visa card issuer, described the UK EMI licence as a significant but intermediate milestone: 'The licence is a step, but it is not the end of the road. It took about ten months to get a UK EMI licence. The process was quite smooth because we invested heavily in having people that know what good looks like. We have a parent company and founders that want us to build a strong, highly compliant organisation - and to demonstrate that to the FCA. More importantly, when we go live in the UK, to have a highly resilient business that is trusted by clients.'
Product rollout and target verticals
On the products Wallester intends to bring to the UK market, Julian Brand outlined two core offerings: 'We will offer UK companies the same products we offer in the EU. Those are Wallester White Label — a turnkey card issuing solution for regulated entities such as banks, EMIs, payment institutions, and insurance companies — and Wallester Business, which is an expense management platform designed to work for any type of UK corporate, either as a standalone tool or integrated into existing payment workflows. We give clients the ability to closely control the issuance of virtual cards, the limits that are set, how they are controlled, and how they are reconciled in the backend.'
On the timeline and strategic focus for the coming months, the official added: 'The next six to 12 months will be about making sure we smoothly and carefully roll out our existing product suites and start providing those services to existing clients, but also focusing on specific verticals in the UK where we see an opportunity - verticals that may be underserved by existing solutions. In logistics, for example, we think there are problems to be solved, and we want to work with corporate clients to provide a better solution for their corporate payments.'
The UK remains one of the more established markets for payments and fintech activity, and the company has noted growing demand from clients seeking support in the market. Having a locally regulated entity is expected to facilitate direct partnerships and longer-term commercial relationships with UK-based businesses.
