News & Resources

    Fraud

    Key Insights from the UK Finance Half Year Fraud Report 2025

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    Fraud remains one of the biggest threats to the UK’s financial sector. The latest UK Finance Fraud Report for the
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    Autumn compliance checklist for payment and e-money firms

    Autumn Compliance Checklist: What Payment and E-Money Firms Need to Do Before Year-End

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    With year-end approaching, autumn is a natural time for payments and e-money firms to evaluate their compliance priorities, review frameworks,
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    payments

    New UK Payments Infrastructure Strategy Outlines Key Outcomes for the Future of Retail Payments

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    The Payments Vision Delivery Committee (PVDC) — which includes HM Treasury, the Bank of England, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA),
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    payments

    Chancellor launches new Scale-up Unit to accelerate growth for financial services firms

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    The UK Government has announced new measures to promote the growth of innovative financial services firms, including the launch of
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    FCA

    What the FCA’s latest strategy means for payments and e-money firms

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    The FCA’s recent speech at PIMFA’s 2025 Compliance Conference focused heavily on investment and advice sectors — but beneath the
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    Draft Money Laundering Regulations Published for Technical Consultation

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    Following a public consultation on ‘Improving the Effectiveness of the Money Laundering Regulations’, the government is bringing forward targeted amendments
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    contactless payment

    FCA Proposes Greater Flexibility on Contactless Payment Limits

    The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has launched a consultation on proposals that could make contactless payments more convenient for consumers
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    HMT publish consultation on proposed approach to payment systems regulation

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    In March 2025, the government announced that it will consolidate the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) primarily within the Financial Conduct
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    safeguarding changes

    Interview with Nigel Reed: Understanding the FCA’s Changes to Safeguarding

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    The FCA’s updated safeguarding requirements are set to bring important changes for e-money and payments firms. With new deadlines, stricter
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    Safeguarding Regime Changes: The Resolution Pack

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    The FCA are strengthening the safeguarding regime to address weaknesses in firms’ current safeguarding practices. This includes the requirement for
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    Resources

    The registration process for SEMIs is cheaper and more straightforward than authorisation for Authorised E-Money Institutions (AEMIs), however there are additional restrictions placed on the activities of SEMIs.

    The FCA would require similar information to an AEMI application but in less detail and would pay close attention to the skills and experience of the business’ senior team.

    • A SEMI’s average outstanding e-money must never exceed €5 million.
    • There are no passporting rights. SEMI’s products can only be offered within the UK.
    • SEMIs can provide unrelated payment services but only if the average monthly total of payment transactions does not exceed €3 million, on a rolling 12 month basis.

    To determine their capital requirements, SEMIs are split into two categories. For those whose average outstanding e-money is less than €500,000 and who do not predict their average to reach that point, there is no minimum capital requirement.

    For those whose average falls above that limit, there is a minimum capital requirement of 2% of their average outstanding e-money.

    The FCA charge application fees as well as on-going supervision fees for authorised entities.

    In addition, there are minimum requirements for on-going capital for authorised firms, although not all SEMIs will be required to meet minimum capital requirements (see above).