Payment law – legal questions on payment services

The attorneys at LSP Lindemann Schwennicke & Partner provide legal advice to banks and other companies on all matters of payments and payment services.

Our clients: Banks, Financial institutions/FinTechs

We advise banks, payment institutions, e-money issuers, and FinTech companies regarding all of the payment services provided by them. In addition to that, we analyze whether the business model of other companies implies payment services which require a license (often underestimated example: money remittance).

Finally, we also provide legal advice to retailers regarding their payment solutions.

Legal advice on payment issues

The law-firm LSP Lindemann Schwennicke & Partner has strong expertise in German/EU bank regulation. In this context we also advise on all regulatory issues regarding payments and payment services.

We analyze whether your business model implies payment services such as money remittance, payment initiation services or account information services. If your company requires a license or registration pursuant to the German Payment Act (Zahlungsdiensteaufsichtsgesetz - ZAG) we support you in the application for such a license or registration or help you regarding single legal questions in this regard.

Additionally, all aspects concerning customer identification (KYC/KYB) pursuant to the German Anti Money Laundering Act (Geldwäschegesetz – GwG) and the German Tax Act (Abgabenordnung – AO) as well as customer authentication pursuant to the ZAG are part of our daily business. We are likewise well familiar with the right on access to interfaces for payment initiation service providers and account information service providers as well as with obligations of infrastructure operators (German “Systemunternehmen”) pursuant to the German ZAG.

Finally, we regularly draft T&Cs and other relevant documents for payment services.

Cooperation with white-label-banks

If a company is not (yet) ready for an application for a mandatory license to act as a payment institution it may consider a cooperation with a so-called white-label-bank. We are well familiar with such models and the corresponding agreements. As legal advisors with longstanding experience in this field we provide competent support negotiating the relevant agreements.