Europe · EU
For financial services, the EU is a single regulatory space: a licence in one member state can, for many activities, be passported across the others — including crypto-asset services under MiCA.
At a glance
Overview
EU legislation harmonises the core authorisation regimes for payment and e-money institutions, investment firms and — under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) — crypto-asset service providers and issuers. Authorisation is granted by a national competent authority, after which the firm can notify its intention to provide services in other member states.
Gambling is the notable exception: it is not harmonised at EU level, and each member state sets its own rules on whether and how online gaming may be offered to its residents.
The choice of home member state therefore matters. Supervisory approach, review timelines, language, local substance expectations and the banking ecosystem differ considerably between national authorities, even under the same legislation.
Authorities
Regimes
Authorisation under the EU payments and e-money framework, with passporting of services across the EEA.
Sectors: Payments
Authorisation for custody, exchange, trading platform, transfer, advice and other crypto-asset services, passportable across the EU.
Sectors: Crypto
Authorisation and white paper requirements for issuers of asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens offered in the EU.
Sectors: Crypto
Authorisation for brokerage, dealing, portfolio management and related investment services, passportable across the EEA.
Sectors: Investment
Applications and regulator engagement for these routes are handled by our Regulatory & Licensing practice.
Considerations
This overview is general information, summarised at a high level. Requirements change and depend on the specific activity; seek advice on your circumstances before acting.
Industries
Across jurisdictions
Services we support across the jurisdictions in our directory, described once on their own pages. How each is delivered depends on the local requirements that apply; where local qualification is required, we coordinate locally qualified counsel.
Support
Insights
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