Small payment institution

 A Small Payment Institution is a natural person, a legal person or an organizational unit which is not a legal person, to which the Law grants the legal capacity. Small Payment Institution is registered in the record of payment service providers and electronic money issuers, conducting activity in any of the payment services, other than the payment transaction initiation service or access service to account information. Such activities can only be carried out in the territory of the Republic of Poland, alone, through a branch or through agents.

 The Small Payment Institution was introduced by the amendment to the Act on payment services. The activity of these payment institutions is to provide payment services on a smaller scale, that is why the limited regulatory requirements apply. Such institutions are not obliged to obtain the permission of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF). However, the activity in the field of payment services, as a small payment institution is a regulated activity, therefore starting operations requires obtaining an entry in the register of payment service providers and electronic money issuers kept by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF). The date of entry into the register is considered to be the day of the beginning operations.

A distinctive feature of a small payment institution is that the average total amount of payment transactions over the past 12 months cannot exceed the equivalent of 1,500,000 euros per month.