2026-01-27
Lithuanian financial market welcomes one of the global leading payment service providers
Lietuvos bankas has given its consent to a transaction allowing Checkout Payments Group Limited, a United Kingdom based financial service company, to acquire an electronic money institution BLUE EMI LT, UAB licensed in Lithuania. Having chosen Lithuania as a growth-friendly jurisdiction, one of the global leading payment solutions companies, Checkout.com, is entering the country’s market.
„Lithuania is increasingly becoming the number one choice for the leading fintech companies. And Checkout’s choice of Lithuania speaks volumes. Our country is a financial innovation hub with an entire ecosystem enabling financial market participants to establish their presence and offer services to people and businesses both in Lithuania and all over Europe“, – says Gediminas Šimkus, Chairman of the Board of Lietuvos bankas.
"Our investment in Lithuania reflects our long-term commitment to the European market. The maturity of the local fintech sector and clear regulatory framework provided by Lietuvos bankas align perfectly with our mission to build a scalable, trusted global payments platform”, – says Guillaume Pousaz, Founder and CEO of Checkout.com
Checkout Payments Group Limited is the holding company of the Checkout.com Group (with about 2000 employees and its headquarters based in London). Checkout.com is offering services to businesses operating in e-commerce and FinTech sectors. Its client list includes quite a few world-leading companies (eBay, Uber, Pinterest, Vinted, Sony, Financial Times).
Lietuvos bankas is ready to ensure a smooth licencing and supervision process to all properly prepared candidate companies. From 2017, potential market participants can gain insight on regulatory environment by using the Newcomer Programme. Lietuvos bankas provides consulting also throughout the licensing process and is constantly exploring the ways to simplify the procedures. Licensed market participants are granted access to CENTROlink, a payment system operated by Lietuvos bankas for about a decade, that enables making SEPA instant payments.
Lithuania has developed a business-friendly environment for financial institutions to establish and grow. For instance, from 2017, a specialised bank offering regular banking services and willing to establish in Lithuania is subject to a smaller initial capital requirement (from EUR 1 million).
In the recent five years, Lietuvos bankas has issued more than 100 licenses to new financial market participants (banks, electronic money and payment institutions, crowdfunding and crypto-asset service providers, financial brokerage firms, management companies, credit administrators) and more than 150 authorisations (intermediaries of financial institutions, insurance brokers). Over the past two years only, five global or international-level financial institutions have entered the Lithuanian finance market (Robinhood, Nuvei, DriveWealth, Commerzbank, PKO Bank Polski).