Bitpanda, a fintech firm based in Vienna, has bagged a payment service provider licence from the Austrian financial market authority (FMA).
The licence was granted under European Union‘s PSD2 directive.
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By GlobalDataPSD2 is aimed at ending the dominance of banks over customer account data and payment services and opening the industry to new players.
Bitpanda calls the licence approval a “significant milestone”.
Commenting on the development, Bitpanda CEO Eric Demuth said: “We are very happy that Bitpanda is one of the few European cryptocurrency fintechs to receive such a licence.
“It’s a big step towards our vision to create an open, innovative investment-platform.”
The new entity will operate under the name Bitpanda Payments.
With the licence in hand, the fintech plans to introduce new offerings in the coming months.
Bitpanda Payments managing director Philipp Bohrn said: “Our goal is to bridge the gap between the modern and traditional financial world.
“The payment service provider licence will allow us to tear barriers down.”
Established in 2014, Bitpanda currently has a user base of nearly one million and staff headcount of 100.
At present, Bitpanda enables users to trade various digital assets like Bitcoin.
Plans are on to expand into other asset classes beyond cryptocurrencies in the future.
