The FCA has cancelled the permission of a small payment institution which did not in fact start providing payment services and failed to submit regulatory returns. Transfer Now Ltd was registered in January 2019 and submitted regulatory returns for its first 2 years of operation stating it had not undertaken any payment transactions or other business. It then failed to submit returns for the next 2 years before telling the FCA at the end of 2023 that it had not been providing payment services and did not intend to do so during the following year. The FCA has cancelled the registration on the basis that:
- it was entitled under the PSRs to cancel it because the firm had not provided payment services in the year following registration;
- failure to submit returns breached Principle 11 ad also showed the firm was not ready and willing to comply with the requirements of the regulatory system; and
- the firm does not need registration as it has never carried out payment services – but had not applied to cancel its own registration.