Bank of Lithuania

An operator of a peer-to-peer lending platform is a legal person who administers a peer-to-peer lending platform (information system via which peer-to-peer lending is carried out). A person has the right to engage in peer-to-peer lending platform operator activity only after the supervisory authority enters it on the Public List of Operators of a Peer-to-Peer Lending Platform. Natural persons and non-profit persons do not have the right to engage in peer-to-peer lending platform operator activity.

Peer-to-peer lending platform operator activity and the procedure for entering on the Public List of Operators of a Peer-to-Peer Lending Platform is regulated by the Republic of Lithuania Law on Consumer Credit (hereinafter ‘the Law’).

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Entering on the Public List of Operators of a Peer-to-Peer Lending Platform

A person can be entered on a public list of operators of a peer-to-peer lending platform if it complies with the requirements laid down in the Law and in the legal acts of the supervisory authority, and provides to the supervisory authority the following documents, data, and information:

  • an application for entering it on the Public List of Operators of a Peer-to-Peer Lending Platform;
  • information on the public register in which the supervisory authority can verify basic personal data. The supervisory authority has the right to require to submit an extended statement from the public register;
  • information on the persons, documents and data specified in Article 251(2) proving their compliance with the requirements laid down therein;
  • information on compliance with the authorised capital requirements;
  • business continuity plan;
  • rules for assessing the creditworthiness of operators of a peer-to-peer lending platform;
  • information on registers and information systems to be referred to for assessing the creditworthiness of operators of a peer-to-peer lending platform;
  • a list of intermediaries of operators of a peer-to-peer lending platform acting on behalf of an operator of a peer-to-peer lending platform, where the person relies on the services of intermediaries of operators of a peer-to-peer lending platform.

Levy for entering on the list

Prior to applying for being entered on the Public List of Operators of a Peer-to-Peer Lending Platform it is necessary to pay into the account of the State Tax Inspectorate (STI) a state levy for entering on the List, which is currently EUR 149 (the amounts of levies are fixed according to Resolution of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania No 1458 of 15 December 2000).

The procedure for the generation of online banking orders into the income collection accounts of the STI and the numbers of income collection accounts are available on the website of the STI.

 

1 – Available only in Lithuanian.


Requirements for heads and participants of operators of a peer-to-peer lending platform

A person meeting at least one of the conditions below cannot be the head of an operator of a peer-to-peer lending platform, natural or legal person or a concurrently acting person, who directly or indirectly holds a share of the voting rights or authorised capital accounting for or exceeding 20 per cent, or who may have a direct and/or indirect decisive impact, as defined in the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on the Consolidated Financial Reporting by Groups of Undertakings1, on the activities of the operator of the peer-to-peer lending platform:

  • the person has been found guilty for committing a crime or a criminal offence related to money laundering or terrorist financing, a serious, very serious crime or offence or a criminal offence with respect to property, property rights and property interests, the economy and business practice, the financial system or equivalent criminal deeds under the criminal legislation of other countries, if the person’s conviction has not expired;
  • who has been subject to an administrative sanction or other legislative enforcement measure more than once over a year, when this sanction or enforcement measure was applied for breaching the requirements of the Law or another legal act regulating the provision of financial services or the activities of financial institutions;  
  • directly or indirectly manages or managed a qualifying holding in the authorised capital and/or voting rights or a holding allowing to have a decisive impact on a legal person, or is or was the head of a legal person who was subject to an enforcement measure for a grave breach of the requirements of a law or another legal act regulating the provision of financial services or the activities of financial institutions, or was deprived of the right to engage in the provision of financial services for such breach, or that legal person has been found guilty of the crime or criminal offence specified in sub-paragraph 1 of paragraph 2 of the Law.

An operator of a peer-to-peer lending platform must notify the supervisory authority in advance of all future changes in the heads and participants, submitting together information, specified by the supervisory authority, necessary to assess whether the new heads being appointed or to be appointed, and/or other persons meet the above-named requirements. Newly appointed or elected heads of operators of a peer-to-peer lending platform may take up duties, and other persons – acquire a holding in the voting rights or authorised capital of an operator of a peer-to-peer lending platform only after the supervisory authority approves of their candidacy or the acquisition transaction.

 

1 – Lithuanian consolidated version valid as of 1 January 2017. English version last amended on 1 July 2015.


Statutory timeframe

The supervisory authority, after assessing a person’s application and submitted documents, data and information, shall, no later than within 30 business days of the receipt of the application, take a decision to enter the person on the Public List of Operators of a Peer-to-Peer Lending Platform or not, and shall notify the applicant in writing thereof. Where the supervisory authority requests additional documents, data and/or information necessary for taking a decision or where they are provided at the initiative of a person who submitted an application for being entered on the Public List of Operators of a Peer-to-Peer Lending Platform, and/or where the supervisory authority applies to persons specified in Article 222 of the Law regarding submission of documents, data and/or information, the supervisory authority shall take a decision on entering the person on the Public List of Operators of a Peer-to-Peer Lending Platform or not entering no later than within 30 business days of the receipt of the additional documents, data and/or information.


Laws and legal acts regulating peer-to-peer lending platform operator activity and entering on the Public List of Operators of a Peer-to-Peer Lending Platform

 

2 – Lithuanian consolidated version valid as of 18 November 2016–30 June 2017. English version last amended on 18 December 2010.

3 – Lithuanian consolidated version valid as of 1 November 2016. English version last amended on 14 October 2014.

4 – Lithuanian consolidated version valid as of 1 December 2016. English version last amended on 17 January 2008.

5 – Lithuanian consolidated version valid as of 20 December 2022. English version last amended on 30 January 2023.

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Last update: 30-07-2024