Electronic money institution

An EMI is a firm that is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to issue electronic money, or e-money. Electronic money is money that is stored electronically on cards, devices or online systems and used to make payments to other parties. For example, if you are using an EMI’s prepaid digital wallet product, you make a payment of £100 to the EMI and the EMI then issues £100 of e-money to your digital wallet. The EMI is required to hold your £100 in a Safeguarding account with a bank. The EMI can issue payment instructions for the cash in its safeguarding accounts, but it is not allowed to lend out those customer funds - this is what differentiates an EMI from a Bank.