Payment service provider license in Georgia

Notice Red

The service isn’t available.

A payment service provider license in Georgia is an instrument that will greatly facilitate your admission to the marketplace for digital payment and settlement systems and transfers, additionally it will also considerably optimize costs because of a positive tax regime in Georgia. The country practically lets you operate in a zero-tax regime especially if you operate at an international scale. Furthermore the country has maximally simplified the registration and set up of business – which is why Georgia has been ranked second on Doing business rating for numerous years in a row.

Benefits of having a PSP license in Georgia

PSPlicense is issued by the National Bank of the country and gives the right to:

  • debiting
    and crediting funds;
  • directdebit
    of theaccount using a payment card or other financial instrument, as well
    as for credit payments within the established amounts;
  • emission
    and acquiring of electronic money and other payment instruments;
  • service
    ofmoneytransfers;
  • servicing
    transactions with electronic moneyperformed by a smartphone, via the
    Internet or in another way;
  • execution
    of a transactionbased on the consentreceived from the payer using a
    telecommunications, digital or information technology device for the benefit of
    the payment system or a network operator playing the role of an intermediary
    between the payer and the recipient.

Companies that have a payment system provider license in Georgia are able to service international money transfers, non-cash payments between individuals and companies, purchases of goods and services in online stores.And also use the tax advantages of the jurisdiction for doing business in the markets of other countries.

What operations can be provided by the owner of a payment system provider license in Georgia?

Companies with aPSPlicense get the opportunity to:

  • place
    customers’ electronic money on their accounts;
  • make
    transfers both within own payment system and outside it;
  • issue
    payment cards and own e-currency;
  • provide
    payment services to third parties;
  • open
    aMerchantaccountto service payments;
  • carry
    out transactions with bitcoins and other virtual money.

The latter is especially important for Georgia, since this country ranks 3rd in the world in terms of the volume ofcryptocurrency mining

Payment services market in Georgia

A payment system provider license in Georgia is becoming increasingly more popular.Since the market for electronic payment services in the country is still young, it is constantly developing.For example, the number of remittances isgrowing steadilydespitethe economic crisiscaused by the coronavirus pandemic.In July 2020, the volume of transfers increased by 22.1% compared to the same period last year.In total, during the reporting period, inflows from abroad to Georgia amounted to 188.7millionUSD, and for the whole of 2019 – to 1.7 billionUSD.And the financial market is actively developing and growing in the country, the number of non-cash transfers and purchases in online stores is increasing.

According to the National Bank of Georgia, the number of transactions using electronic money reached the level of March 2020 and the market began to gradually revive.Recall that this was the month when the country introducedquarantine related restrictions.

Volumes of transactions carried out byPSP-providers in Georgia:

Month, 2020 Transactions with electronic money, lari Transactions excludinge-money, lari Total,lari
January 8 965 119 460 057 485 469,022 604
February 6 162 245 475 676 130 481 838 375
March 8 702 971 460 085 812 468 788 783
April 4 084 564 296 186 824 300 271 388
May 4,969,861 357 901 815 362 871 676
June 8 792 882 429 203 625 437 996 507
41 677 641 2 479 111 692 2 520 789 333

In total, 30 companies have a payment system provider license in Georgia as of August 17, 2020, all of them are registered in Tbilisi.

Name The form Date ofregistration
1 “EMoneyGeorgia” JSC 12.12.2012
2 “Oppa” JSC 12.12.2012
3 Direct Debit Georgia LTD 12.12.2012
4 “TBC Pay” LTD 24.12.2012
5 “Unipay” LTD 12/27/2012
6 “Money Movers” LTD 14.01.2013
7 Metro Service + LTD 04.04.2013
8 “Adjarapay” LTD 04/30/2013
9 “Mobile Finance Service-Georgia” JSC 07.05.2013
10 United Clearing Center JSC June 17, 2013
11 “All Pay Way” LTD 04.08.2015
12 “Numus” LTD 04/19/2016
13 “UPS” LTD 07/14/2016
14 “Geo Money” LTD 23.09.2016
15 “The PayUnicard” LTD 03.02.2017
16 “NBC” LTD 02/15/2017
17 “Smart Payment Systems” LTD 02/07/2018
18 “Monremi” LTD 24.05.2018
19 “Max Express” LTD 08/03/2018
20 “CleardSystems’“ LTD 23.08.2018
21 “ProtellerGeorgia” LTD 21.09.2018
22 “Fastpay” LTD 12.10.2018
23 Posta Pay JSC 18.10.2018
24 “MoneyQo” LTD 12/19/2018
25 “Neolet” LTD 12/21/2018
26 “Soliground” LTD 03/15/2019
27 “E-market” LTD 04/15/2019
28 “Peitron” LTD 11.11.2019
29 “InexPay” LTD 05/07/2020
30 “DMServices” LTD 06/25/2020

As you can see from the table, most of the currentPSPproviders operate in Georgia in the form ofLLCand were registered in 2018.There are also 2 newcomers on the market -InexPayandDMServicesentered the payment services market in 2020.

Requirements for PSP providers in Georgia

A payment system provider license in Georgia is available to those companies which meet the following requirements:

  • form of business: limited
    liability company or joint stock company;
  • presence of a legal address
    and office on the territory of Georgia;
  • authorized capital in the
    amount of GEL 250,000 (must be formed at the time of registration of the
    license);
  • no convictions among founders
    and leaders of the company.

The advantages of company registration in the local jurisdiction is that in Georgia the payment system provider license is granted, even if there are foreigners among the founders.At the same time,there are no restrictions on the number of founders, directors, employees.

Payment system provider license in Georgia: list of required documents

In order to serve transactions with electronic money, international transfers,merchantaccounts in Georgia, you will need to undergo the licensing of the company by the National Bank of the country, and for that purpose, the following set of documents is required.

  • completed
    form according to the established template;
  • a
    list of payment services that the provider plans to provide;
  • a
    schematic description of each payment service, including information on the
    method of data transmission at the time of the beginning of the transaction to
    its completion;
  • a
    description of the electronic system that will service transactions, including:
    a list of hardware and software with an indication of the
    manufacturer;list of communication means and encryption
    algorithms;description of the program interface;
  • an
    extract from the Public Register of Entrepreneurs and Non-Entrepreneurial Legal
    Entities;
  • a breakdown
    of the authorized capital, up to the final beneficiary;
  • documents
    allowing to identify the owner of the company;
  • certificate
    of no criminal record of the beneficiary (not older than 60 days, if issued by
    the authorities of foreign states);
  • lease
    agreement, purchase / sale / gift agreement or other document confirming the
    right to use or own the real estate where thePSPcompanyoffice
    will be located;
  • business
    plan for the provision of payment services in Georgia;
  • licenses,permits,
    ifavailable.

Attention!!!All documentsissued by the authorities of foreign states must be translated into Georgian and notarized.

Payment system provider licensing procedure in Georgia

A payment system provider license in Georgia is issued after the successful completion of the following procedure:

  1. Preparation
    of constituent documents (all documents must be in Georgian).
  2. Registration
    of a company in the form of LLC or JSC in the House of Justice in Georgia
    (takes 1-2 business days and costs 100 or 200 GEL, depending on the speed of
    registration).
  3. Opening
    a corporate account in a Georgian bank and formation of statutory capital.
  4. Submission
    of documents to the National Bank of Georgia.

The regulator issues the resolution to register aPSPcompany in Georgia within 60 calendar days after receiving the complete package of documents.In case ofinaccuracies or incompleteness of documents package, the applicant is given 30 calendar days to eliminate the deficiencies.

Attention!!!If the second statement on the elimination of inaccuracies/deficiencies is not delivered to the address of the legal entity within 10 calendar days, the National Bank has the right to reject registration.

After a positive resolution to grant a payment system provider license in Georgia, the regulator publishes the relevant information on its website within 2 working days.

Responsibilities of a PSP company in Georgia

In order to retain the payment system provider license in Georgia in the long-time perspective, the company must fulfill a number of requirements:

  • the presence of a
    headquarters in the country;
  • data on transactions should
    bestoredin such a way that they are available for submission to the
    National Bank at the first request;
  • access to the internal
    database of the payment system to the regulator;
  • a representative of aPSPcompany
    must be present in Georgia for at least 14 calendar days in a month.

Furthermore, it is necessary to ensure high reliability and confidentiality.For violation of therequirementsestablished by the regulator, sanctions are applied to the company, up to the cancellation of the license.

What are the advantages of a payment system provider license in Georgia?

It should be noted straightaway that the payment system provider license regulates the company’s activities on the territory of Georgia.Therefore, if a legal entity wants to enter the financial market of another country, it will first have to obtain a license from the local regulator.However, having a license in Georgia and reliable work experience can have a positive impact on the positive resolution.

In addition, theadvantages of a payment system provider license in Georgia are:

  • an
    opportunity to operate in a developing market of payment services, where there
    is a stable growth of international transfers;
  • Lack
    of burdensome or complicated requirements and a relatively small package of
    documents;
  • registration
    speed – a license is issued in a maximum of 60 calendar days;
  • no restrictions
    to have non-resident founders;
  • the
    opportunity to obtain the status of an international financial company (5% of income
    tax, exemption on property tax, taxation of dividends, income tax on wages).

If you are interested in a payment system provider license in Georgia, contact us at [email protected] or by online chat, and we will provide you with expert advice on this matter.

Does a payment system provider license in Georgia entitle the company to carry out activities at an international scale?

The payment system provider license provides the PSP-licensed company the right to operate on the territory of Georgia, issues regarding operations in other countries are regulated by the respective local regulators of those countries.

Who makes the decision to establish an international financial company in Georgia?

The decision to establish an international financial company is made only by the Government of Georgia.

Why Georgia’s payment system provider license?

A payment system provider license may be of interest to companies that are interested in having access to a relatively small market/country in order to gain experience and subsequently expand at an international scale. It should also be noted that the Georgian market is still young and developing, which means many opportunities abound.


Tags:

You are welcome to review other interesting articles on Georgiawealth.info: