Cap. 376 Art. 4Application for a licence or a registration.

(1) Any company with the intention of transacting, regularly or habitually, activities listed under the First Schedule of this Act in or from Malta, other than account information services, shall before regularly or habitually transacting any such activities, apply in writing to the competent authority for a licence under this

Act:

Provided that a legal person that is in possession of an authorisation granted by another Member State under the Payment Services Directive or the Electronic Money Directive, may exercise its European rights in accordance with the provisions of the Payment Services Directive and the Electronic Money Directive.

(1A) Any natural person or company with the intention of transacting, regularly or habitually, account information services shall, before regularly or habitually transacting any such services, apply in writing to the competent authority for a registration under this Act:

Provided that a natural or legal person that is in possession of a registration granted by another Member State under the Payment Services Directive, may exercise its European rights in accordance with the provisions of the Payment Services Directive.

(2) All applications for a licence or registration, as applicable, shall be in such form and accompanied by such information and shall conform to such conditions as shall be prescribed from time to time by any Financial Institutions Rule, and an application may only be withdrawn by written notice given to the competent authority at a time before the licence or registration being applied for has been granted or refused.

(3) The competent authority shall have the power to require any person to provide such information as it shall deem necessary, for the purposes of determining an application for a licence or a registration, as applicable.

(4) The competent authority shall only grant a licence or a registration if the information and evidence accompanying the application complies with all the requirements set out in the Financial Institutions Rule referred to in sub-article (2) and if the competent authority’s overall assessment is favourable, after having scrutinised the application.

(5) The competent authority may, where relevant, before granting a licence or a registration, consult the Central Bank or other relevant public authorities.

(6) A licence to provide payment services or to issue electronic money and a registration to provide account information services, shall be valid in all Member States and shall allow the payment institution, the electronic money institution, or the account information service provider concerned, to provide the services that are covered by the licence or registration throughout the European Union, pursuant to a European right.