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1000+

Successful FCA applications

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Winner of Best Financial Services Compliance Consultancy 2020 - 2024

2000+

Happy customers served

Types of services

We take the payment services compliance workload off your plate, so you can continue to comply as your business grows, without your regulatory responsibilities slowing innovation.

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Applications

Preparing your submission and supporting documents, answering feedback and questions from the FCA; we’re there from beginning to end and beyond

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Compliance support

Comfort that the right processes are in place to meet your payment services compliance obligations on an ongoing basis, from regular audits and technical advice, to a strong compliance document suite

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Audit and advisory

Having worked with over 250 payment and E-money firms, we know one size does not fit all when it comes to payment services compliance, our support is always tailor-made in the way that works best for you

Wondering how long it’ll take? What your options are? Where to start? Or whether you’re ready to become authorised?

Head to our FCA authorisation FAQs

Financial crime prevention

Keep on top of your financial crime compliance and understand your responsibilities, with hands-on support from our world-class regulatory experts.

 

Find out more ➜

EU Application

Unlock and expand the power of your Payment Services firm to new markets across the EU.

As well as supporting Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs) and Payment Institutions (PIs) with applications to the FCA in the UK, Thistle Initiatives is ready to help your firm expand to new client bases in the European Union (EU). We are helping firms revolutionise and empower payment services businesses by assisting them with licensing across multiple EU jurisdictions.

 

Click the link below to see how we can help your firm expand.

 

Find out more ➜

Who we support

We support these types of organisations to keep innovating
  • Electronic Money Institutions
  • Commercial Agents
  • Account Information Service Providers
  • Electronic Communication Service Providers
  • Payment Initiation Service Providers
  • Payment Card Issuers
  • Foreign Exchange (FX) Providers
  • Payment Account Providers
  • Payment Acquirers
  • Payment Processors
  • Bill Payment Providers
  • Money Remitters
And many more...
Verto
OpenPayd
3C Payment
Juni
Dext
We worked with Thistle’s payment services team on our application to become a Registered Account Information Service Provider (RAISP). From the very start of the project, the team was extremely professional and fast-moving, answering all our queries in detail and drafting comprehensive documents for our application. This helped us get approved much faster than we had accounted for. We would recommend Thistle’s team to any early-stage company that’s looking for support on their FCA applications.
Bippit

Agent and distributor onboarding

For companies looking for a quicker route to market, we provide practical support for becoming agents and e-money distributors of existing regulated providers.

We will help prepare everything you need to seamlessly pass through the due diligence checks on the principal firm, when onboarding as either an agent or distributor.

What our payment services clients have to say

“We have been extremely satisfied with the services received from Thistle’s Payment Services team for our FCA Change in Control application. They were exceptionally responsive, attentive to our needs, and incredibly helpful. We were also very satisfied with the high level of expertise and knowledge demonstrated by the consultants, who delivered our requirements in a timely manner.”
Esettlements Limited Logo
Esettlements
Thistle was determined to ensure that quality was not compromised for the sake of the schedule. Instead, they insisted on a rigorous review of our application dossier, which proved to be the best course of action. It was impressive to see Thistle prioritise quality over cost or schedule.”
LoyaltyView Ltd
Loyaltyview Ltd

Some of our recent payment services blog posts

FCA Wake-Up Call: The CrowdStrike Outage and the Urgency of Operational Resilience in Financial Services

FCA Wake-Up Call: The CrowdStrike Outage and the Urgency of Operational Resilience in Financial Services

The recent CrowdStrike outage underscores how crucial operational resilience is ...
Navigating FCA Requirements: Unspoken Rules for Payment Services and E-Money Firms

Navigating FCA Requirements: Unspoken Rules for Payment Services and E-Money Firms

For payment services and e-money firms, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ...
Thistle Initiatives Newsletters - June 2024

Thistle Initiatives Newsletters - June 2024

Welcome to our comprehensive monthly newsletter series, providing insights and ...