Any person who wishes to provide banking, electronic money, payment or other financial services which are supervised by the Banco de España must have prior authorisation.
The criteria and procedures to be followed depend upon the type of institution concerned:
- Credit institutions – banks, savings banks and credit cooperatives.
- Foreign institutions through branches, freedom to provide services or representative offices.
- Payment institutions
- Electronic money institutions
- Other –, specialised lending institutions (SLIs), mutual guarantee companies (MGCs), reguarantee companies and owners of currency-exchange bureaux.
In any event, if you have any doubts about whether the business you wish to conduct is a business supervised by the Banco de España and subject, therefore, to authorisation, you can contact us via this contact form. A reply will be given within ten days.
Once you are ready to start the authorisation procedure and in order to expedite the processing, you are invited to arrange a meeting with the Authorisation and Registration Division of the Banco de España, prior to submitting your application. At this meeting you can explain your project and request any clarifications you may require.