Starting your own EMI is it profitable business or not?

[Blackcrypto]

Hey folks,

I have a friend who asked me about some ides about new projects, and when we were talking, i mentioned to EMIs, opening your own EMI and he really liked it. But i don't have much information about it. As i know it cost up to 1M 1.5M EUR to get your license + compliance ++++ bla bla.

He and his friends can get 1.5M EUR. But the question is "is it profitable business or not"? How much they made yearly (EMIs)?

Any advice or suggestions?

 

[JohnnyDoe]

Hey folks,

I have a friend who asked me about some ides about new projects, and when we were talking, i mentioned to EMIs, opening your own EMI and he really liked it. But i don't have much information about it. As i know it cost up to 1M 1.5M EUR to get your license + compliance ++++ bla bla.

He and his friends can get 1.5M EUR. But the question is "is it profitable business or not"? How much they made yearly (EMIs)?

Any advice or suggestions?

It depends on what you use it for. If only as a generic EMI for the public, it will generate little or no profits with just 1.5m Eur budget, as you need much more for proper marketing.

 

[Don]

Hey folks,

I have a friend who asked me about some ides about new projects, and when we were talking, i mentioned to EMIs, opening your own EMI and he really liked it. But i don't have much information about it. As i know it cost up to 1M 1.5M EUR to get your license + compliance ++++ bla bla.

He and his friends can get 1.5M EUR. But the question is "is it profitable business or not"? How much they made yearly (EMIs)?

Any advice or suggestions?

EUR 2M is reasonable, as per what I have discussed with a friend who owns an EMI in Cyprus, and it will most likely take a year to setup. It can be a decent business if you have good connections (or business synergies) and operate in a jurisdiction where your services can stay ahead of the competition.

Suggestions: do some market research and rough calculations

Smaller operating EMI-s are sold at around EUR 4-5 M in Lithuania.

 

[JohnnyDoe]

A good marketing approach would be to offer packages company+account, and to advertise it on this forum
And of course apply no limitations to crypto!

 

[TheCryptoAnt]

Theres a lot of variables on an EMI being nicely profitable or just scrapping by. The good thing about EMIs is that theres a lot of white-label solutions to choose from.

If this was my biz I would look at EU countries were the banking sector turbo sucks and market to them, ie Ireland and Greece.
Bonus points if you can get IBANs from those countries.

And as Johny said, make it crypto friendly for both personal and company.

 

[JohnnyDoe]

You could also target to a specific market outside Europe, like OuiTrust does for China.

 

[sinos]

If you are looking to work with US-based LLCs, you may like this - The Banking As A Service Platform | Synapse

The parent behind Mercury Bank.

Other options: Solid – The Modern FinTech Platform

 

[Forester]

Theres a lot of variables on an EMI being nicely profitable or just scrapping by.

Exactly. This market is highly competitive – and definitely it has some pretty niches, too.

The good thing about EMIs is that theres a lot of white-label solutions to choose from.

Yes, it is. (It is necessary to choose carefully.)

If this was my biz I would look at EU countries were the banking sector turbo sucks and market to them, ie Ireland and Greece.

IMO good idea in general; but note that there is a lot of EMIs in Ireland nowadays (mainly descendants of UK ones, born after brexit).

Bonus points if you can get IBANs from those countries.

A must-have in the concept mentioned, I think.

And as Johny said, make it crypto friendly for both personal and company.

+1 (Of course, it brings troubles with custodian/correspondent banks etc.)

You could also target to a specific market outside Europe, like OuiTrust does for China.

Excellent idea. IMO, the market outside Europe is much less competitive. (Of course, in many cases more risky.)

 

[TheCryptoAnt]

You could also target to a specific market outside Europe, like OuiTrust does for China.

Thailand

Although it will be a massive pain

 

[Samman Kaseeb Sleiman]

Hey folks,

I have a friend who asked me about some ides about new projects, and when we were talking, i mentioned to EMIs, opening your own EMI and he really liked it. But i don't have much information about it. As i know it cost up to 1M 1.5M EUR to get your license + compliance ++++ bla bla.

He and his friends can get 1.5M EUR. But the question is "is it profitable business or not"? How much they made yearly (EMIs)?

Any advice or suggestions?

Dude, have you found a free a html template for a crypto exchange which you were looking for a half a year ago?

Do your friends who can raise EUR 1.5M really exist?

 

[fanban]

With such amounts available your friend should have the resources it requires to find all the information needed to get started.

EMI's is huge business, as mentioned here already there are a lot of spaces and gaps in the current services that can be covered with a new EMI.

Personally Wise is still the best of all of them I have tried.

 

[GeneralGogol]

Overall s**t business, tons of competitors and very few make money. Requires big investments for license, compliance etc. Many of them are just Russian laundromats disguised as real businesses.

Revolut is still losing money and it's tough to compete with companies that offer everything for free and don't care about losing money for a decade just to gain marketplace dominance.

I guess it could be profitable if you onboard high risk customers and charge them high monthly fees or a % of incoming\outgoing wires. Need to find a niche that the market doesn't yet cover. I wouldn't go anywhere near this business, seems like a great way to burn money.

 

[Don]

Overall **** business, tons of competitors and very few make money. Requires big investments for license, compliance etc. Many of them are just Russian laundromats disguised as real businesses.

Revolut is still losing money and it's tough to compete with companies that offer everything for free and don't care about losing money for a decade just to gain marketplace dominance.

I guess it could be profitable if you onboard high risk customers and charge them high monthly fees or a % of incoming\outgoing wires. Need to find a niche that the market doesn't yet cover. I wouldn't go anywhere near this business, seems like a great way to burn money.

Might be a bit late to the party indeed. If you had the same idea in 2010 (such as the guys who founded Transferwise (now Wise) it could be a different story.

Since 2007 the number of credit institutions in the EU has steadily dropped from 8.3k to 5.2k.

EU: Number of credit institutions 2007-2023 | Statista

The number of credit institutions in the countries of the euro area decreased considerably between 2007 and 2023.

www.statista.com

Now, as the EU is moving toward implementing CBDC-s, the number of banks is expected to reduce to 1. While it might sound innovative with all the crypto and web3 hype, it's actually the good old soviet system, which used to be known as Gosbank: Gosbank - Wikipedia

Based on that, it seems like a good time to exit the banking industry.

 

[Blackcrypto]

Dude, have you found a free a html template for a crypto exchange which you were looking for a half a year ago?

Do your friends who can raise EUR 1.5M really exist?

Still looking, i found one but not free (1.02 EUR) and that's too much for me. If you really knew me, you would be ashamed of your words
enjoy

 

[Martin Everson]

He and his friends can get 1.5M EUR. But the question is "is it profitable business or not"?

It is not unless you plan to be a laundromat or on the other hand offer other services other than vanilla accounts and money transfer.

I explained this below.

Reliable EMI for IT consulting

Hi, I have a company registered in Marshall, I am doing IT consulting (5-6 specific customers only from Europe or UAE), I would kindly ask your suggestion for reliable EMIs other than TW. I am not doing any online business, no selling products to many people, just consulting and some time some...

www.offshorecorptalk.com

 

[Blackcrypto]

It is not unless you plan to be a laundromat or on the other hand offer other services other than vanilla accounts and money transfer.

I explained this below.

Reliable EMI for IT consulting

Hi, I have a company registered in Marshall, I am doing IT consulting (5-6 specific customers only from Europe or UAE), I would kindly ask your suggestion for reliable EMIs other than TW. I am not doing any online business, no selling products to many people, just consulting and some time some...

www.offshorecorptalk.com

Thanks Martin for the explanation

Thanks for everyone, that's really helpful

 

[Forester]

With such amounts available your friend should have the resources it requires to find all the information needed to get started.

Generally – yes. But trying to call here for some opinions is IMO not a bad idea