Fintech star Curve extends its licence in Lithuania

A division of the global fintech company Curve in Lithuania has extended its EMI licence and it can now grant credits and distribute its insurance products linked to Curve payment card.

In the Bank of Lithuania procedures of licence extension and inclusion in public lists, the client UAB Curve Europe was represented by the Ellex Valiunas banking and finance practice.

The Bank of Lithuania issued an electronic money institution (EMI) licence to the company Curve in October last year. This licence conferred the right to the company to issue electronic money and carry out payment operations, provide cash withdrawal from a payment account service, issue payment instruments and provide payment initiation and account information services and exchange currency.

To expand the range of its electronic payment and other related services in Lithuania and Europe, it was relevant to the company to extend the existing licence as well as to be included in the Public List of Consumer Credit Providers and in the Public List of Insurance Brokerage Undertakings.

The Ellex Valiunas team helped the client analyse the products it intends to offer, qualified them in legal terms and identified the need for specific licences and additional inclusion in the specific lists. After preparing the required document package, the law firm represented the client in three different procedures simultaneously in the Bank of Lithuania.

On 23 July, the Board of the Bank of Lithuania supplemented the electronic money institution licence held by Curve Europe granting the right to provide the payment service stipulated in the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Payments – to execute payment transactions where the funds are covered by a credit line for a payment service user. Until that time, the Bank of Lithuania has included the company in the Public Lists of Consumer Credit Providers and Insurance Brokerage Undertakings, which allowed obtaining all required permits almost simultaneously and not suspending the launch of products requiring several different permits on the market.

Curve Europe, UAB belongs to Curve OS Limited, an electronic money institution founded in the United Kingdom, and is assessed as a future unicorn that has created a unique payment card Curve. It connects several payment cards of a user into one via a mobile application and allows the user to make payments through one card – Curve.

The client was consulted by Ieva Dosinaitė and Giedrius Stasevičius, partners, Julija Šlekonytė and Neringa Mickevičiūtė, associate partners, Mindaugas Moskalionas, associate consultant, Domantas Gudonis and Eglė Radvilaitė, associates and Gytė Maleckaitė, senior associate.