Latest notes
Policy & History · 26 May 2026 · 9 min read

When the tax net and the rulebook tighten together: what economic history says about regulatory and fiscal drift.

Europe is living through a period in which fiscal pressure and regulatory density are rising in parallel. History offers a reasonably consistent lesson about what happens to capital, enterprise and talent when the two tighten together.

Strategy & Licensing · 20 May 2026 · 8 min read

Buying a licence instead of building one: the strategic case for acquiring small EMI and payment institutions in Europe.

For a group that needs a regulated foothold in European payments, foreign exchange or e-money, the question is rarely whether to be licensed — it is whether to apply for a new authorisation or acquire an existing one.

Regulatory · 15 May 2026 · 6 min read

MiCA transitional regime: where the European crypto-asset market stands eighteen months after application.

A practical note on what changed on 30 December 2024, what the transitional window means in practice until 1 July 2026, and how operators that were already lawfully providing services should approach the period that remains.

Licensing · 28 April 2026 · 7 min read

Electronic Money Institution or Payment Institution in Lithuania: a choice that costs more than capital.

The capital threshold is the most cited difference between an EMI and a PI licence in Lithuania. It is not the most consequential. The relevant question is what the business intends to do with client funds — and that decision dictates the entire authorisation file.

AML & KYB · 10 April 2026 · 5 min read

Source of funds in cross-border banking onboarding: the file is the question, the narrative is the answer.

A practical observation from coordinating onboarding files for cross-border corporate operations: the documents do not speak for themselves, and the gap between what an applicant believes is sufficient and what a regulated counterparty actually needs is the most common reason a file stalls.