Services
The four modules of work — structuring, AML/KYC, licensing, contracts and banking onboarding.
OpenThe modules are the same. What changes is the risk that dominates and the counterparty whose approval decides whether you launch.
Sector knowledge is not a marketing claim — it is knowing which three questions a supervisor asks first, which clause a payment provider always negotiates, and which part of the file is usually missing.
Below is how the work differs by vertical. The underlying modules are the same; what changes is the risk that dominates, the counterparties whose approval you need, and the documents they will insist on seeing.
Online gaming is regulated nationally across the EU, so the first decision is not “which licence is cheapest” but which markets you intend to serve and what each of those markets requires of a licence-holder. A licence that is inexpensive to obtain and unacceptable to your payment provider has cost you more than a difficult one.
The distinction between a payment institution and an electronic money institution decides your capital, your safeguarding obligations and the shape of your supervision. It should be settled before the business plan is written, not adjusted afterwards to fit an application.
Since the MiCA transitional period closed on 1 July 2026, providing crypto-asset services to clients in the EU without authorisation is not a grey area — national regimes no longer provide cover, and several supervisors have said publicly that unauthorised activity will be treated as such.
Further reading: MiCA after the transitional period.
Affiliate arrangements sit between two regulated parties and are frequently the least documented part of the chain. When a regulator asks an operator to account for how players were acquired, the affiliate contract is the document that answers — or fails to.
Software businesses serving regulated clients inherit their clients' obligations through contract. Enterprise procurement, security questionnaires and processor agreements have become the real gate, and they are passed on paper long before anyone evaluates the product.
It is common — an operator with an in-house affiliate arm, or a platform that also holds a payment authorisation. The issue is not the combination but whether the group structure separates the regulated activity cleanly enough that a supervisor can see where its perimeter ends.
We advise on EU and UK-facing requirements directly, and coordinate local counsel elsewhere. Where a jurisdiction is outside our direct experience we say so rather than researching it at your expense.
Yes, if the business sits inside a regulated perimeter or depends on banking and payment access. If it is outside what we do, we will say so in the first reply and, where we can, point you to someone who does it.
That is the best moment. Market choice determines authorisation, capital and banking acceptance, and it is far cheaper to model those before commercial commitments than to unwind them afterwards.
A short description of the product, the markets and the payment flows is enough for us to say what is required, in what order and at what cost.
We reply within one business day with a scope, the deliverables and an indicative fee — not a brochure.