Electronic money and payment institutions on the rise in Lithuania

At the end of 2019, a total of 115 electronic money (EMI) and payment (PI) institutions operated in Lithuania.

Overall, their number over the year grew by a fifth. Corporate income from licensed activities (according to unaudited data) increased 1.7 times – from EUR 41.08 million to EUR 68.6 million.

67 EMIs and 48 PIs operated in Lithuania at the end of 2019. In terms of licensed EMIs, the country was ranked first in continental Europe, according to the official press release. Moreover, Lithuania’s jurisdiction has already gained good reputation and thus there are several institutions interested in obtaining a licence in the country, according to Bank of Lithuania representatives.

However, the supervisory bar is also set high, thus the examination of licensing applications is an ongoing process at the Bank of Lithuania. In 2019, the Bank of Lithuania received over 80 applications from interested institutions, yet more than 30 of them were rejected in the preliminary stage due to lack of data, or their examination was terminated after the submission of notes by the Bank of Lithuania.

In 2019, within its supervisory mandate, the Bank of Lithuania paid most attention to compliance with anti-money laundering, own capital and customer fund protection requirements.