The UK’s leading payments specialist, allpay Limited, has been authorised as an electric money institution (EMI) by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
This will allow the company to manage client funds, organise its clients’ banking arrangements and operate schemes for other Programme Managers within the UK and across Europe.
Under the new license, allpay Limited will become a regulated business for prepaid cards allowing the firm to expand its current service capabilities. The firm will now be able to build on its current offer to customers, providing prepaid cards which have an ID functionality with a banking ‘lite’ capability. Furthermore, allpay Limited will continue to support its clients with card manufacture and bureau facilities as part of the overall solution.
allpay Limited gained permission to operate as an e-money provider after successfully demonstrating it had the required policies and procedures in place, the necessary IT infrastructure and controls, and a regulatory five-year business plan. Since the end of May 2016, the payments specialist has been fully operational and ready to facilitate clients within the government, financial services, gift and loyalty sectors and, in the longer term, the travel market. allpay Limited will provide menu pricing to cover different parts of the offer, but also provide a unique ‘total package’ to ensure economies of scale, as with its card manufacture and bureau facility the firm can now provide clients with many parts of the value chain under one supplier.
Kevin McAdam, director of prepaid at allpay Limited, said: “Our aim is to provide customers with prepaid programmes that are multi-functional, and multi-national, so that we can retain our ability to remain flexible to market changes as we expand our presence and capabilities. We can offer our clients multiple solutions on how to collect payments from their consumers whether through government payments, creating loyalty through gift cards or expanding services to financial institutions with the prepaid card as an addition to their portfolio of accounts.
McAdam continued: “Becoming an e-money provider moves our business into a new field, allowing us to improve and extend our services to customers, as well as being fully regulated. Under the license we are now able to operate across the UK and Europe, and also support initiatives further afield. Coupled with our ability to support card manufacture and bureau facilities, we provide a unique solution for our clients.”