EMI license in Austria: e-money institution (EMI) requirements (2026)

Yes. To provide electronic-money or payment services in Austria you need authorisation as an Electronic Money Institution (EMI), supervised by the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA), under the EU E-Money Directive (2009/110/EC) and the Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2).

The Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA).

Application and supervisory fees that vary by country (often €5,000–€25,000), plus safeguarding and audit costs.

Typically roughly 3–12 months; the regulator has up to 3 months to decide once the application is complete.

The application file centres on programme of operations listing each payment service you will provide; business plan with a three-year budget forecast; evidence of the €350,000 initial capital; governance arrangements and internal-control mechanisms; plus fit-and-proper evidence for directors and qualifying shareholders.

Incorporate in the member state and establish real local substance (registered office and part of the business conducted there). Build the application file: programme of operations, three-year business plan, governance, AML/CFT, safeguarding and security policies. The authority then assesses the file and, once authorised, you can begin operating.

Yes — an EMI authorisation passports across the whole EEA (all 27 EU states plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein).

The FMA grants licences to Payment Institutions under Section 1 of Chapter 2 of ZaDiG 2018, covering all eight PSD2 Annex I service categories (credit transfers, direct debits, card acquiring/issuing, money remittance, account information, payment initiation, account operation). Authorised Austrian PIs passport into the EU 27 plus EEA under Articles 28-29 PSD2 via FMA notification.

Commercial issuance of electronic money in Austria requires a dedicated licence as an Electronic Money Institution (E-Geld-Institut) from the FMA under the E-Geldgesetz 2010, subject to limited Article 2(2) exemptions. EMIs are supervised separately from PIs pending the PSD3/PSR merger.

AISPs and PISPs are registered/licensed by the FMA under ZaDiG 2018, with strong customer authentication and secure communication requirements set by Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/389. Austrian banks implement the Berlin Group NextGenPSD2 API standard; major institutions (Erste, Raiffeisen, UniCredit Bank Austria, BAWAG) expose compliant APIs.

Austria participates in SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) since 2017 and TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) since November 2018, with OeNB providing national payment infrastructure. Under the EU Instant Payments Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2024/886), PSPs in Austria have been required to send and receive euro instant credit transfers 24/7 since 9 October 2025, alongside the mandatory verification-of-payee (VoP) service.

The Austrian Consumer Credit Act 2026 (VerKrAG 2026 / VKrG 2026), transposing EU Directive 2023/2225 (CCD II), enters into force on 20 November 2026 and abolishes the previous EUR 200 de minimis threshold. All forms of payment deferrals, interest-free loans, and small loans - explicitly including BNPL and instalment models such as Klarna and PayPal Pay Later - are captured, with limited carve-outs for standard merchant payment deferrals and deferred-payment debit cards.

The FMA operates a FinTech Point of Contact and a regulatory sandbox (introduced in 2020) to guide firms through the ZaDiG 2018, E-Geldgesetz 2010 and BWG licensing analysis. The FinTech Navigator publishes a domain-specific decision aid for digital payments licensing.