nthis Ltd has been granted an eMoney Institution (EMI) License by the Central Bank of Cyprus. iSignthis eMoney, iSignthis’ subsidiary will trade under the name ISXPay.

An EMI licence allows the company to execute payment transactions (including direct debits and credit transfers), money remittance, and issue or acquire payment instruments, such as credit or debit cards amongst other services.

John Karantzis, CEO of Cyprus-based iSignthis said, “The grant of an EU eMoney license is a significant milestone for the Company, overcoming the last significant hurdle in the execution of our strategy.”

As per the requirements of the license, iSignthis will now finalise its Principal Membership commercial arrangements with Mastercard Worldwide, JCB, Visa Inc and other card suppliers as a card acquirer and issuer.

“The license allows the company to crystallise its strategy fully, and to offer its merchants the full range of Paydentity™, payment gateway, card acquiring and card issuing services in the EU, which will complement our partnership with the National Australia Bank for card acquiring services in Australia and New Zealand,” Karantzis added.

The commercial arrangements will be finished alongside the necessary technical integration for each of the card schemes, of which the integration is expected to take around six months.

The company has also identified partnership opportunities where it may use the payment settlement infrastructure of other EEA-based payment service providers, while still contracting and servicing merchants under its own license. ISXPay can then directly contact merchants so services and revenues may begin sooner across the EU.

Karantzis said, “iSignthis will be able to provide our merchants with EU-wide card acquiring and settlement services, in addition to issuing new cards for pay-outs to end users. This is an exciting period for iSignthis and ISXPay, with incredible potential revenue upside from the new lines of business it offers.”