Services Global Licensing & Compliance
Global
licensing support
What is the real question
in cross-border expansion?

When a business expands internationally, the real question is usually not “Is this legal?” in the abstract. It is: which market should be entered first, through which entity, with which product set, under what restrictions, and at what cost in time and management attention?

That is why global licensing support is usually a comparative exercise. It involves looking at multiple jurisdictions together and deciding which route is commercially sensible, not simply which route is theoretically possible.

How should jurisdictions
be compared?
A sensible comparison usually looks at:
  • 01 Whether the activity is licensable, registrable, restricted or effectively impractical;
  • 02 How long approval is likely to take;
  • 03 Whether the business can market into the jurisdiction or only respond to inbound interest;
  • 04 Whether local presence, personnel or infrastructure are needed;
  • 05 Whether the same entity can service several markets; and,
  • 06 What the ongoing burden will be once approval is obtained.
What is often overlooked?
Businesses often focus on the licence itself and ignore the surrounding restrictions. In some markets, the harder issue is not whether the service can be provided at all, but whether customers can be onboarded lawfully, whether financial promotions are restricted, or whether local banking and payment rails are workable.
What should be settled
before anything is filed?
Before starting a formal submission, management should ordinarily settle:
  • The target activity and licensing pathway;
  • The proposed group and entity structure;
  • The senior individuals who will hold responsibility for key functions
  • The broad control framework, including compliance, risk, approvals and reporting lines
  • The core facts of the business model, including customer onboarding, marketing, custody, payments and complaint handling.
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