Applicable regulation

When should an application be made to use agents?

Credit institutions, payment institutions and electronic money institutions that are approved by the ACPR may use agents that they have appointed to provide payment services, under their responsibility. Furthermore, payment institutions and electronic money institutions providing payment services may use agents to provide payment services in another State of the European Economic Area.

To be able to pursue these activities, agents must demonstrate to the credit institutions, payment institutions or electronic money institutions that appoint them that they meet fitness and propriety requirements and be recorded by the ACPR in a register.
The relevant criteria, particularly those relating to fitness, are set out in Article 36 of the Executive Order of 29 October 2009 on the prudential regulation of payment institutions. Specifically, agents must have received training to be able to perform accounting or financial functions, or have experience of at least two years in such functions, or have held merchant status for two years.

Registration procedure

A credit institution, payment institution or electronic money institution that has first checked compliance with fitness and propriety requirements must:

• disclose the list of agents to the authority ;
• fill out and send an application to the authority.

After making sure that the abovementioned requirements are satisfied, the ACPR will inform the institution that its agents have been registered in a letter giving their registration number. When a reporting institution makes a first-time request to register one or more agents, it must also provide a description of the internal control system, to enable the ACPR to ensure that agents comply in particular with requirements in the area of preventing money laundering and terrorist financing.

Payment institutions and electronic money institutions that wish to use an agent in another State of the European Economic Area must complete an additional declaration for each country in question (cf. section on the European passport).