Fintech & payments regulation in Greece (2026)

The European Parliament and Council reached provisional political agreement on PSD3 and the Payment Services Regulation (PSR), which will merge Greece's separate Payment Institution and Electronic Money Institution regimes into one unified licence and strengthen open-banking access rights. Final texts are expected in the EU Official Journal in H1 2026, with member-state transposition due ~2027.

The Hellenic Capital Market Commission issued Decision 8/1059 specifying application requirements, fit-and-proper criteria, and documentation standards for Crypto-Asset Service Provider authorisations under Law 5193/2025 and MiCA, completing Greece's domestic CASP licensing infrastructure.

Published in Government Gazette A 56/11.04.2025, Law 5193/2025 designates the HCMC as national competent authority for CASP licensing and the Bank of Greece for e-money token and asset-referenced token issuers. Greece became the third EU member state — and first in Southern Europe — to complete domestic MiCA implementation, with a national transitional period ending 31 December 2025.

EU Regulation 2023/1114 on Markets in Crypto-Assets became fully applicable, bringing crypto-asset service providers operating in Greece under mandatory authorisation and prudential requirements. Firms relying on a transitional VASP registration must obtain full HCMC authorisation by 31 December 2025 or cease operations.

Greece enacted Law 4961/2022 on Emerging Information and Communication Technologies, providing the country's first statutory definitions of blockchain and distributed ledger technology (Article 31; Articles 47–51) and laying a legal foundation for DLT applications in financial and public-sector services.

The Bank of Greece opened its Regulatory Sandbox — co-funded by the EU's DG Reform and implemented with EBRD technical assistance — offering fintech firms a supervised environment to test innovative financial services without immediate full regulatory risk. It is open on an ongoing basis to both licensed institutions and non-authorised entities partnering with a licensed firm.

The Bank of Greece's Executive Committee adopted Act 189/1, formally defining eligibility criteria, operational terms, and supervisory conditions for the Regulatory Sandbox, enabling both authorised financial institutions and fintech start-ups (via licensed-entity partnerships) to test regulated innovations under BoG oversight.

The Bank of Greece published Act 164/2019 setting out detailed procedures for authorising Electronic Money Institutions under Law 4021/2011, including capital-adequacy calculations, safeguarding rules, and application documentation, completing the practical licensing framework for e-money issuers.

Greece transposed the EU's Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive via Law 4557/2018, for the first time requiring Virtual Asset Service Providers to register with the Hellenic Capital Market Commission and comply with KYC/AML obligations — the earliest domestic regulation directly targeting crypto businesses.

Greece enacted Law 4537/2018 transposing Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2), establishing the national licensing framework for payment institutions, account-information service providers (AISPs), and payment-initiation service providers (PISPs). The Bank of Greece became the competent authority for payment institution authorisation and strong-customer-authentication (SCA) oversight.

As a structural reform tied to Greece's ESM bailout, retailers and specified professional categories (physicians, lawyers, tradespeople) were legally required to accept card payments from 1 January 2016. Card transaction values tripled by 2017, and studies found that at least one in nine new digital transactions corresponded to previously undeclared economic activity, improving VAT compliance.

Greece imposed capital controls on 28 June 2015, capping daily ATM withdrawals at €60 to arrest a banking-system bank run during the sovereign debt crisis. The restrictions proved the single largest structural catalyst for digital payment adoption in Greece, with card use tripling in value by 2017 and digital penetration remaining elevated long after controls were lifted.

Greece enacted Law 4021/2011, transposing EU Directive 2009/110/EC (the second E-Money Directive) and creating a distinct Electronic Money Institution licence category supervised by the Bank of Greece, with a minimum initial capital of €350,000 and mandatory safeguarding of customer funds.