On 8 July 2026, the Supervision Committee of Latvijas Banka issued an electronic money institution licence to SIA MOIN Payments. The licence carries the right to provide an additional payment service, money remittance. The institution intends to issue e-money and execute payment transactions, with e-money accepted by both legal and natural persons. Its services will enable online sellers to accept payments in local currencies from customers in specific countries and to settle in euro. Latvia now hosts 12 licensed and 1 registered electronic money institutions, alongside 10 licensed payment institutions. The trend line matters more than the single grant. Latvijas Banka has issued four EMI licences and five payment institution licences in 2026 to date. The whole of 2025 produced three EMI licences.
Why an EMI licence matters
An EMI licence is more than a payments permission. Under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, e-money tokens may only be issued by credit institutions or authorised electronic money institutions. Every EMI licence granted in an EU Member State is therefore latent EMT issuance capacity, passportable across the Union. A jurisdiction that accelerates EMI authorisation is, deliberately or not, building the institutional base from which euro-denominated stablecoin issuance can launch. Latvia's pipeline growth sits alongside its established fintech supervision infrastructure: published licensing guides covering documents, process and review deadlines, and pre-licensing consultations through the Innovation Hub, where supervisory experts assess regulatory compliance before an application is filed. The model rewards early engagement, and the grant rate suggests it works.
What firms should note
Firms weighing an EU base for e-money, payments or prospective e-money token issuance should treat the smaller, engagement-forward regulators as serious candidates alongside the default jurisdictions. Latvia offers a documented process, direct pre-application access to supervisors and demonstrated willingness to license. The standard structuring questions still apply: substance expectations, safeguarding arrangements for e-money float, AML/CFT infrastructure, and, for any EMT ambition, the additional MiCA issuance requirements layered over the EMI base. Pre-licensing consultation should be the first step, not the fallback.
Latvia's central bank has issued its fourth electronic money institution licence of 2026, with money remittance permissions attached, against a licensing tempo that already exceeds the whole of 2025 and positions Latvia as a growing gateway for EU e-money and, by extension, MiCA e-money token issuance.
