Payment systems infrastructure

 Payment service providers may be a legal entity, natural person or an organizational unit that is not a legal person, the law of which grants legal capacity. The operation of payment service offices is a regulated activity, therefore the payment services office must be entered in the register of payment service providers maintained by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority in order to have the authority to provide money transfer services. Such activities can be conducted only on the territory of the Republic of Poland, through branches or through agents.

 The payment services office is required to meet several conditions. Above all, it should have organizational solutions allowing for calculation of the total monthly amount of payment transactions and performance of obligations under the Act of March 1, 2018 on Counteracting Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism. According to this law, the payment systems infrastructure are required to register transactions over EUR 15,000. The obligation to register such a transaction also occurs when it is carried out by more than one operation, when circumstances indicate that they are interrelated and have been divided into several operations with the intention of avoiding the obligation to register.

The average of the total amount of payment transactions from the previous 12 months made by the payment services office, including agents who provide the payment services, may not exceed EUR 500,000 per month. The payment services office is also obliged to periodically provide the Financial Supervision Authority with information on the total value and number of payment transactions made, including its agents.

In addition, the person managing the office cannot be validly convicted against business transactions, against the turnover of money and securities, as well as a crime of financing a terrorist offense, or a fiscal offense.

It should be noted that the payment services office that applies for entry is required to have a business plan and financial plan for the first 12 months of operation, but there is no obligation to submit these documents to the Financial Supervision Authority with an application for entry into the register.

The payment services office is obliged to comply with the recommendations issued by the Financial Supervision Authority. It is also obliged to protect the funds received from users for the execution of payment transactions. This obligation may be fulfilled by concluding a bank or insurance or insurance contract with a domestic bank or a credit institution, a branch of a foreign bank or an insurance company.