Digital Payments & Fintech - Cayman Islands

Any person conducting a 'money services business' in or from the Cayman Islands must first obtain a CIMA licence under the Money Services Act; breach is a criminal offence. Defined activities include money transmission, currency exchange, cheque cashing, and the issuance/sale/redemption of money orders or travellers' cheques.

CIMA is the sole financial-services regulator; money services businesses are supervised on an ongoing basis by CIMA's Banking Supervision Division, with quarterly returns and AML compliance obligations.

Applications follow the Money Services Businesses Regulations and require a minimum net worth of CI$30,000, fit-and-proper (written approval) of directors and senior officers, a business plan, financial statements, and an AML/CFT framework.

Firms transferring or custodying virtual assets register or license with CIMA under the Virtual Asset (Service Providers) Act; the Phase 2 licensing regime for custody providers and trading platforms came into force on 1 April 2025, with the supporting Regulatory Policy gazetted 23 May 2025 and existing registrants required to apply for a licence by 29 June 2025.

Unlike the EU/UK, the Cayman Islands has no standalone e-money or payment-institution licence and no specific fintech statute; e-money and payment-service providers are regulated by fitting their activity into the money services (or, for digital assets, VASP) framework.

There is no statutory open-banking regime, no domestic instant-payment scheme, and no dedicated buy-now-pay-later regulation in force; BNPL has limited local uptake and is not addressed by a specific framework.