Pliant, a Berlin company offering corporate cards and B2B payment technology, has secured an electronic money institution licence from the FCA for its British subsidiary. Pliant Payments Limited can now launch products and onboard UK customers directly rather than through a partner. The FCA review covered customer onboarding, risk management, safeguarding of funds and internal controls. The company aims to serve businesses, banks and public sector bodies.

What it means: Since Brexit, European fintechs cannot use the EU passport to operate in Britain, so a separate licence is practically required for a serious presence. Pliant's case shows what a regulator looks at before granting one: how customers are identified, how funds are protected and whether internal controls are real. Those are the same points the Bank of Greece checks for payment institutions, so any Greek company thinking about applying for a licence will find a useful preparation guide here. For Greek businesses with subsidiaries or customers in Britain, more corporate card providers mean more options for per-employee spending control and automatic reconciliation with accounting. Competition in corporate cards usually pushes down FX charges and monthly fees. The question for a finance director is whether the provider connects to the company's accounting system and whether transaction data can be exported easily for tax filings and audits. Firms should also check where card data is stored after Brexit, since UK and EU data protection regimes now differ in detail.

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