The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen, FI) announced that, from 1 July 2025, it will itself carry out suitability (fit and proper) assessments of agents acting for foreign payment service providers operating in Sweden, following amendments to the Payment Services Act and the Electronic Money Act. The assessment will include access to information from the criminal records register and the suspected persons register. After completing its assessment, FI will send relevant information linked to the planned Swedish operations to the provider’s home-country supervisory authority, which remains responsible for deciding whether to register the agent. FI noted that there are several hundred such agents in Sweden and that, before the legal changes, it could not assess whether their management was suitable; it raised the need for these amendments with the government in March 2024.
Finansinspektionen 2025-06-26
Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority to start fit and proper assessments of agents for foreign payment service providers from 1 July 2025
Starting 1 July 2025, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen, FI) will assess the suitability of agents for foreign payment service providers in Sweden, following amendments to the Payment Services Act and the Electronic Money Act. FI will access criminal and suspected persons registers and share findings with the provider’s home-country authority, which will decide on agent registration. Previously, FI lacked the authority to assess agent management suitability.