Workshop: Key Steps to Successful FinTech Licensing 

Success with FinTech licenses does not depend on your budget and has no correlation with the quality or reputation of your advisors.

Why is it that very few FinTech startups keep growing, and securing licenses and partnerships… while most other startups struggle and run out of money? They all operate in the same environment, get almost the same level of seed investments, graduate from the same incubators, are subject to similar regulations, and face the same competition... What is it that those successful few FinTech have figured out?

If your FinTech startup plans to apply for (or got stuck with) a FinTech, PSD2, EMI, MSB, or a similar license and you don't have the resources to hire a large team, your product is not quite ready and financial partnerships negotiations are still in progress - this workshop is perfect for you! 

Did you know that FinTech licensing success rarely depends on huge budgets?

Look around – how often have we seen exceptional all-star teams with comfortable funding buffers, great networks to leverage, supported by leading consultants, hiring top engineering talent, announcing major partnerships with banks… They publicly celebrated the launches of their projects only to see that their licensing processes took 18-24 months and cost $20+ million.

Look at how many years Revolut was waiting for their banking license, look at the Libra project not being able to figure out their regulatory situation since the summer of 2019 and finally dropping the project entirely... Just to name a few…

SO MANY THINGS CAN GO WRONG AND CAUSE DELAYS

It is an unfortunate truth about financial startups: the regulatory barrier to enter is high and you need to have many things in place (people, technology, partnerships, documentation, license approvals...) before you are even allowed to start. If you don’t manage your resources carefully, you risk running out of money. Don't believe anyone who promises fast results or accelerated approvals, even if they are regulators or former regulators. Responsible professionals will never promise you specific approval timelines. 

You will likely not be able to control the timing of the review, but it is your job to control the budget allocation and make sure you have sufficient runway,  and do not overspend on things that don't matter.

Did you know that actually less than 10% of all startups who apply for the license finish successfully?

Let me give you an example:

Once upon a time, there was a very mature and experienced team, everyone worked 15-20 years in the financial sector…

• they knew each other well and liked working together…
• they had connections with regulators and talked to them frequently…
• they raised a few $ millions of funding…
• they hired talented engineers and were on track to secure important partnerships…
• they did not waste any money on marketing…
• those who cared about cars already had decent cars, so Lambos weren’t that existential anyway…
• they applied for the license, they felt it was coming soon, so they kept investing into building the team and the tech… 

Then things slowed down:

• The regulator kept asking “strange” questions and the team did not really know what was missing...
• Weekly executive team meetings became tense because all the important deadlines and milestones were past due...
• CEO and CFO were reluctant to sign commercial partnerships and make external commitments seeing delays with the license approval, which meant that integrations with partners and testing could not begin...
• The tech team could not make much progress, because the regulator was supposed to provide essential feedback, and it did not happen...
• Additional funding became harder and harder without tangible progress with product or license approval.

And then they run out of money and fired everyone.  

​This story actually inspired this workshop, so if you'd like to know what happened in detail, all you need is to block just about 2 hours of your time and make it a priority!

So, what  ACTUALLY went wrong with that story I mentioned earlier?  
 
As usual with all disasters and catastrophic events, it’s never about one huge tragic mistake, but rather it’s about a few small things that were overlooked and a few small red flags that were ignored...

• They hired too many consultants (one for privacy, one for payments, another one for security, etc…) but none of the consultants was responsible for the overall process success. It caused delays and additional review cycles.
• Nobody within the team was scared to fail and nobody expected that additional funding if needed, could be an issue. They just assumed that the license would happen because the team was so credible and experienced and serious and so committed to doing the right things. It removed the sense of urgency and caused delays. Nobody was driving and pushing and making things happen fast (typical mentality inherited from corporate jobs).
• When things slowed down and unanswered questions piled up and multiple decisions got postponed, nobody was ready to make imperfect trade-offs or compromises or allow a risky mistake…
• The team started pointing fingers at each other, considered changing consultants, and lost a few engineers and other employees...
• Everyone who stayed just accepted delays and called it "being strategically patient" and waited for the stars to align and all conditions to match and all answers to become clearer… So it caused more delays, and the money just run out.

 
To tell you the truth – I’ve never seen a successful license application where everything was ready. There are always trade-offs and compromises and missing things but if you have not gone through this process before, you would not necessarily be able to guess, what’s important and what’s less critical.
 
This is why I’d like you to join this training and learn how to successfully secure a FinTech license while avoiding unnecessary delays and waste of resources.

By the time you will finish this FinTech Licensing Workshop, you will have clarity about the core success ingredients any growing FinTech needs to massively scale operations and get regulatory approvals easier and faster.

In a decade of working in FinTech compliance, I came to believe that the majority of people don’t realize that all they need to do is to do the right things at the right time. 

“Just in time” or “agile” approach to compliance is the fastest and most efficient way to scale your FinTech, launch innovative products, and keep customers happy.

Just think about it, the tech component in FinTech is how compliance is delivered: using tools, integrating vendors, developing rules, and monitoring dashboards. Agile “just in time” methodology is a proven most recognized approach to delivering tech products, through testing and iterations. It ensures your next investment of time and resources is based on feedback and data, and you don’t over-invest in projects that don’t work.

This value-packed condensed and pragmatic training will help you apply the same principles to FinTech licensing.

What you will get:

• Access to the workshop recordings - instantly available. 
• You will also get access to a number of downloads, specifically – our detailed FinTech license application roadmap, which will provide you with a clear and simple overview of a typical licensing process, key milestones, and how to know if you are on track or not
• Downloadable overview of the EU/EEA regulatory regimes, and a sample document template for your first regulatory inquiry
• BONUS: Comparison table including UK, Luxembourg, Ireland, Lithuania, Liechtenstein covering local substance requirements, license application formalities and other pros and cons of each jurisdiction.

Why this works: In the last several years, Yana Afanasieva and Competitive Compliance have successfully completed 12+ FinTech license applications in multiple jurisdictions and will share with you first-hand experience about how long it takes, and what the differences and similarities between countries, local requirements, and regulatory expectations are.

AGENDA:

• Jurisdiction choice: how to select a country where you'd like to establish your entity and at which point you need to incorporate?
• License choice: EMI vs Payments. Can it be combined with VASP?
• Pre-application. Where do you bring your startup? First regulatory contact. What do you need to have in place before you apply in terms of people, tech, and documentation?
• Application and Post-Application. We talk specifically about key reasons why so many applications are stumbling in the beginning and how to avoid it. We share experiences on how to conduct regulatory negotiations and how to know you are on track. We cover key milestones of the post-application phase, such as completing audits, passporting, setting up FIU, DPA, and other processes before you go live.

Logistics:

After you will have made the payment, you will be granted access to the password-protected area of the course portal where all recorded content and templates will be delivered to you. You will be prompted to create your log in and password which you will need to access the program recordings at any time in the future. All access information will be delivered to you within 10-15 minutes after the payment is processed.

Please note that this offer is non-refundable.

Questions? – Feel free to write to [email protected]

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