7 Best Payment Licensing Firms for Fintech Companies

Fintech founders list regulatory complexity as their biggest obstacle to market entry by far, with 63% mentioning it as a main challenge. However, many turn to generalist law firms that aren’t equipped to handle licensing projects hands-on.

Managing a payment or crypto license requires much more than legal advice; it takes deep knowledge of specific jurisdictions, personal contacts with the relevant regulators, and a dedicated team to guide you from project scoping to final approval. While a consultancy firm will provide a research report, a compliance platform will only audit current processes; neither will get you to the finish line by designing an EMI, PSP, or VASP license.

We’ve compared seven payment licensing firms that offer jurisdiction-specific expertise, regulatory insight, and project management, not generalist consultancies or compliance-as-a-service audit platforms. 

All of the companies listed in this article are staffed with a compliance team, have experience in various jurisdictions (whether that’s the EU, Asia, CIS, or a larger footprint), and offer project-managed licensing from start to finish (meaning they’ll be a single point of contact for your team and handle everything themselves). We’ve ranked them by a mix of their direct EMI, PSP or crypto experience, geographic spread, team set-up, years spent in the market, and transparent positioning. In a nutshell, here’s how they compare at a glance.

The Payment Licensing Landscape in 2026

Fintech companies are navigating a complex maze: regulators are tightening crypto regulations, MiCA is transforming the regulatory landscape for crypto assets in Europe, and the number of VASPs in Asia is continuously growing.

Most law firms lack the commitment to take on the whole project from start to finish, so when the project fails to reach a deadline, there is a lack of a party to blame or hold accountable. A lot of consulting firms do not have the legal expertise that a fintech company specifically needs, and even reviews for the fintech industry are not necessarily a sign of the expertise needed to handle the license application for each specific jurisdiction.

Finding a fintech compliance or payment licensing firm that both takes care of the entire process from start to finish and also has the experience required in multiple jurisdictions is rare. This is all the more true when the business model involves cross-border payments or the regulatory compliance aspect is becoming a key competitive advantage. In other words, founders should not just be looking for a company that can help them get their license for EMI or PSP or a CASP, but rather to be involved in the entire process and stay connected, and that’s the difference between general advice and specialized services.

How to Choose the Right Payment Licensing and Fintech Compliance Firms

Fintech founders need to navigate numerous jurisdictions, regulators, and compliance requirements. Having the right licensing partner makes a huge difference in cutting through the noise and bringing proven expertise, sector knowledge, and personal ownership over the project.

• Direct track record of success on licensing: Confirm the firm has secured EMI, PSP, VASP, or crypto licensing in your chosen jurisdictions, rather than providing licensing consulting services only. Ask for a timeline of the case (with names redacted).
• Global footprint and local presence: Choose firms with experience in relevant markets, like the EU, Asia, CIS, or any global reach, if you plan to expand into multiple jurisdictions. Firms that focus only on certain jurisdictions will be a roadblock to scaling later.
• In-house compliance and legal professionals: Make sure the firm has its own in-house compliance officer(s) and licensed legal counsel(s), not referral partner(s). Check how large their team is and find their names online and qualifications.
• Dedicated team with single point of contact: Firms that use a project-managed approach, with only one contact to hold accountable throughout the project, are more likely to deliver successfully. You don’t want to be the person sending emails to five people and receiving three different answers. That’s how it works in generalist firms.
• Clear positioning and proof points: Choose the firm that doesn’t just quote a price on a per-call basis (and never shares it) but instead shows their pricing, timelines, and successful cases in the specific market you need.
• Services for post-licensing compliance and AML management: Getting your license is only the beginning. Make sure the firm you choose provides ongoing AML policy and program design, regulatory reporting, and compliance staff support.

Quick Comparison

Scan licensing scope, geographic footprint, and team structure to match your fintech’s jurisdictional needs and project complexity.

Top 7 Payment Licensing and Fintech Compliance Firms

Whether you’re setting up a neobank in the EU, opening a payment channel, or setting up a crypto custody solution, having counsel that specializes in the licensing of financial services could determine whether your license takes six months to secure or two years to work out.

The following seven law firms have considerable experience with payment institution licenses, electronic money licenses, and fintech regulations, and each one brings something slightly different in their offering.

Fintech Harbor Consulting 

Fintech Harbor Consulting helps businesses obtain crypto, financial, and gaming licenses through end-to-end legal and regulatory support. Founded in 2019, the firm assists with jurisdiction selection, company formation, licensing, bank account opening, payment solutions, and regulatory guidance for fintech, crypto, forex, and iGaming ventures. Fintech Harbor Consulting specializes in identifying cost-effective licensing jurisdictions to help businesses achieve a more efficient market entry while meeting regulatory requirements.

The seven-lawyer team handles everything from bank account opening to trademark registration and contract drafting, and operations remain GDPR-compliant. For founders launching crypto exchanges, gaming platforms, or payment processors who need a single partner managing legal structuring, licensing, and banking relationships across multiple jurisdictions, this firm’s integrated delivery model removes the coordination burden that typically fragments multi-vendor approaches.

Pros:

• End-to-end licensing and legal support
• Expertise in crypto, fintech, and iGaming
• Company formation and banking assistance
• Broad international jurisdiction coverage
• Focus on efficient market entry

Cons:

• Primarily serves high-risk industries
• Limited services for general IT businesses
• Premium pricing compared to some competitors

Law & Trust International

Since its establishment in 2003, Law & Trust International has been providing complete legal consulting, business incorporation, as well as accounting, audit, and tax consulting services for clients in more than 135 jurisdictions globally. A distinctive advantage of Law & Trust International is the direct connections with more than 150 banks.

As it relates to our fintech services, this allows us to offer a unique package that combines incorporation, offshore registration, and opening bank accounts, trademark and patent registration, with a merchant acquiring and acceptance solution directly related to the fintech market.

Law & Trust International is capable of supporting you with every step of setting up a business and ongoing accounting, audit, and tax filing and planning. The ability to have a complete team providing these services together is especially useful for those fintech startups and payment businesses looking to operate in different jurisdictions with different reporting cycles and local-counsel requirements. 

Law & Trust International are particularly useful to fintechs and payments startups and established businesses who are seeking business incorporation in more than one jurisdiction. Having access to multiple banking jurisdictions is also important to these types of businesses.

Pros:

• Direct banking relationships with 150+ institutions worldwide
• 135+ jurisdictions covered with integrated accounting, audit, and tax planning
• 23-year track record across offshore, EU, and CIS regulatory environments

Cons:

• Pricing not published—quote-only engagement model
• No third-party platform ratings (G2, Capterra, Trustpilot) to validate client satisfaction independently

Manimama

A law firm called Manimama operates globally, working with crypto businesses, tokenization businesses, and high-risk industries, and it offers MiCA, VASP, CASP, and iGaming licensing in 85+ jurisdictions. It was established in 2019 and has only seven years of practice experience in the crypto sector. There’s no practice experience outside of this niche. It was founded by Ganna Voievodina, who is an attorney, and it employs 11 to 50 people, according to the firm’s website.

Manimama’s clients work directly with regulators across Europe, Asia, and more. Its core business is crypto, tokenization, and iGaming businesses. Manimama offers company formation and AML/KYC compliance services and legal documentation. The firm helps clients with these services and licensing services together for fintech.

This firm works with crypto businesses and iGaming businesses that need to obtain VASP or MiCA licenses across multiple jurisdictions, and it has a team that has worked with crypto regulators.

Pros:

• Seven-year crypto-exclusive practice with 85+ jurisdiction coverage
• MiCA, VASP, CASP, and iGaming licensing specialists
• 11–50-person team with direct regulator relationships
• Turnkey AML/KYC and company formation services

Cons:

• Pricing not published—quote-only model
• No client brands disclosed on site

InnReg

Created in 2013, InnReg is not a regulatory consulting firm; instead, it serves as a compliance function that works alongside clients’ teams instead of just offering advice to them from afar. With 13 years of fintech compliance experience, its 11 to 50-person, SOC 2-compliant company focuses on broker-dealer registration, broker-dealer licenses, and support and compliance hiring for broker-dealers. Clients include Amber, Ava Labs, LendingTree, and M1 Finance.

While most consulting firms provide guidance and deliverables, InnReg helps with filings, employees, and support as it handles a number of compliance operations on an ongoing basis, so it’s a good fit for startups that want to build out compliance capabilities but don’t have in-house staff. InnReg is led by Francesco Matteini and Daniel Garcia and focuses on compliance operations, compliance consulting, and risk management.

Pros:

• Embedded team model replaces advisory distance with daily operational integration
• SOC 2 compliance and 13-year fintech track record
• Broker-dealer registration and licensing specialization with ongoing staffing support

Cons:

• Pricing not published—quote-based engagement model
• No third-party platform ratings (G2, Capterra, Trustpilot) to benchmark service quality

LegalBison

With teams across five countries, LegalBison serves as a licensed Corporate Service Provider offering integrated support for crypto and FinTech businesses. They specialize in VASP/CASP licensing, regulatory compliance, and MiCA authorization — all managed through one dedicated contact.

Founded in 2019, the firm was created to simplify the process for founders who need help across multiple jurisdictions without having to coordinate separate experts in places like Estonia, Malta, or the UK. Their project-managed model brings lawyers, compliance specialists, and corporate administrators together under the same roof.

Clients benefit from end-to-end assistance: jurisdiction selection, AML/KYC setup, bank account facilitation, and full licensing support. This unified approach helps avoid the handoffs that can cause months of delays. 

Pros:

• Single point of contact coordinates lawyers, compliance, and licensing specialists
• MiCA authorization and VASP/CASP licensing expertise
• Five-country integrated team coverage

Cons:

• Pricing structure not published—quote-based engagement model
• No third-party platform ratings to validate client satisfaction

COREDO

What separates COREDO is that they offer a legal shield across 15 European jurisdictions with transparent upfront costs. Most payment licensing firms operate in a “pricing on request” model, meaning you have to chase multiple firms to get estimates.

COREDO was established in 2016 to handle financial licensing for EMI, PSP, and CASP as well as company registration, and they offer consulting services for AML and legal opinion on various topics. They offer support in Europe, Asia, and CIS countries. The firm also helps with drafting contracts, trademark registration, and M&A corporate advisory in addition to core licensing services.

They hold a 4.5-star rating on Trustpilot, though they haven’t made any public posts or updates since last year. If you’re launching a fintech in the EU and would like to avoid a “call us to get a quote” pricing model, COREDO is a good option. They cover a variety of jurisdictions in Europe and give you the option of seeing how much things cost before you contact them.

Pros:

• Published pricing across 15 EU jurisdictions
• EMI, PSP, CASP licensing specialization
• Integrated AML consulting and legal opinions

Cons:

• Content updates dormant for 370+ days
• Limited public team visibility beyond admin contact

PSP Lab

PSP Lab is a fintech consultancy firm based in the UK, established in 2019 by individuals with real-world experience of owning and obtaining a licence for their own payment services business. Because the partners at PSP Lab have successfully owned, launched and licensed their own payment businesses, they know what it feels like to navigate the authorisation process, comply with regulations and engage with the regulator.

PSP Lab provides full scope licensing services, management consulting, external audit, software development and M&A services. PSP Lab is a great choice if you are looking for an integrated, single-point-of-contact service provider. Clients of PSP Lab include Orbital, EveryPay, Plum and IFX Payments, which are all fintech businesses with some level of complexity and thus a strong case for PSP Lab services in this area.

Pros:

• Founders have built and licensed their own payments businesses—practical operator knowledge
• PI/EMI authorisation expertise with integrated M&A and software development services
• Client roster includes Orbital, EveryPay, Plum, IFX Payments

Cons:

• No published pricing—quote-only model
• No third-party ratings (G2, Trustpilot, Capterra) to validate service quality

Conclusion

If you’re a Fintech founder looking for a license partner to help you navigate payment or crypto licensing, you probably need one firm with knowledge of multiple jurisdictions, understanding of the regulatory landscape, and experience delivering your project in a managed fashion, and the seven companies above are the firms that have all of these things (albeit with a slight variation in geographic focus and service offering): a firm with an EMI, PSP or VASP license experience, multi-jurisdictional capability and a dedicated compliance team (as opposed to the distance between a general advisory firm).