Obtaining the appropriate financial services licenses for your Estonian business

Financial consulting develops rapidly, gaining worldwide popularity. Inquiry for it is increasing due to:

• cooperation between global trade unions;
• growing interest in money transfers via the Net;
• strengthening of electronic valuta, etc.

As one of the influential digital states, Estonia is interested in expanding this sphere.

Estonia’s enterprises gladly cooperate with each other, conducting internal trade with other EU countries, freely offering them goods and professional aid. Estonia does not limit business holders to bureaucratic frameworks and does not oppress their occupation with taxes. Thus, by registering a specialized organization — provision of monetary sphere assistance, Estonian enterprise owners succeed in many ways. Nevertheless, such projects demand a permit, so it is worth finding out what papers are needed to provide assistance in the finances’ sphere.

How to get a permission to open an establishment for assistance with money or virtual valuta transactions

In order to open either an establishment for assisting with cash or electronic valuta transactions, the obtaining of a special permit is needed. Though the permit registering procedure demands that both organizations provide almost identical papers, these permissions cannot replace one another.

The virtual money organizations assist to execute money operations, as well as virtual currency issuing. Still, the obtained doc for operating in the sphere of money transactions assistance, prohibits its enterprise’s owner from virtual valuta dealing. Thus, when planning both virtual cash issuance and providing another help in finances’s sphere, take care of obtaining separate permits.

The «checking organization» concept

Checking organization — company, serving primarily for clients’ help, executing fees. The Estonian law allows businessmen to engage people in fees consulting operations, connected economically or professionally with checking organizations.

It’s not forbidden to:

• enable individuals to deposit financial records or do cash withdrawals;
• execute currency operations or cash transferring from a fund to a fiscal record;
• execute currency operations as funds’ granting loans for the checking associations’ clients;
• issue/purchase means or instruments of paying;
• act as an intermediary of transactions approved by the payer, for which telecommunications, automatic or IT’s are used.

Any servicing, provided to the clients of an organization, connected with payings or investing, require licensing.

Many fiscal organizations with an Estonian permit, provide professional consulting in the sphere of finances, including cash operations. The payer uses these services to transfer cash through a payment service provider to a designated payee (or his provider) using the Internet or other means of communication.

Individuals and businessmen, using these services, can transfer currency without opening a financial record.

Definition «virtual valuta organizations»

Estonian organizations that regularly issue virtual currency, operate as restricted enterprises (public or private, have limits in obligations).

Any currency is considered virtual, if it:

• has value;
• is stored on electronic media;
• expresses a monetary claim to the emitter;
• issued according to the nominal value of the accepted fee sum;
• is used as an instrument for deposit transactions and admitted as an instrument for paying by at least one individual except for the digital valuta emitter.

The company receives a permit for digital valuta working, confirming its direct relation to digital currency issuance.