The map
Payment institution — you move other people’s money: acquiring, transfers, account information or initiation services: the dedicated page. E-money institution (EMI) — you issue stored value: wallets and prepaid balances, the heavier sibling with higher capital. Crypto-asset service provider — custody, exchange or platforms under MiCA: that route. Investment services — brokerage, portfolio management or advice under the markets framework. Lending and insurance distribution carry their own regimes beside these.
What every ticket expects
The same skeleton scales across them: fit-and-proper directors genuinely in the Netherlands, capital per class, a compliance and risk function that exists, safeguarding of client funds designed into the banking architecture, and IT-risk documentation the supervisor can actually read. Substance is the licence’s twin: the standard.
The strategic read
One Dutch authorisation passports the union — the reason fintechs put the licence entity here and sell everywhere. Many models also start lighter: as agent of a licensed institution, or under an exemption, graduating to the own licence when volume justifies the file. The structure around it stays the standard chart: the skeleton.