A small electronic money institution means a legal person established in the Republic of Croatia, which has been issued a decision by the Croatian National Bank on the entry of a small electronic money institution in the register of payment service providers and electronic money issuers and which may issue electronic money and provide payment services referred to in Article 3, paragraph (2), items (3) to (6) of the Electronic Money Act.

A small electronic money institution may issue electronic money and provide payment services exclusively in the territory of the Republic of Croatia.

Submission of the application for entry in the register

A legal person established in the Republic of Croatia intending to issue electronic money as a small electronic money institution (hereinafter referred to as 'applicant') submits to the Croatian National Bank an application for entry in the register in accordance with Article 60 of the Electronic Money Act. All the required documentation and information prescribed in accordance with Article 60, paragraph (4) of the mentioned Act should be enclosed with the application, specifying the payment services that the applicant intends to provide and indicating which of these services are not linked to the issuance of electronic money.

The application for entry in the register of payment service providers and electronic money issuers should be accompanied by a report on the average outstanding electronic money that may not exceed EUR 265,000.00. Where the applicant has not commenced operating or has not completed a sufficient period of operation for the purposes of calculation of the average outstanding electronic money, a projection of the average outstanding electronic money in the following six months that may not exceed EUR 265,000.00 should be enclosed.

If the applicant provides payment services that are not linked to the issuance of electronic money, the total average monthly value of payment transactions executed by the applicant in the last 12 months, including the payment transactions executed through its agents, may not exceed EUR 995,000.00. If the applicant has not commenced operations or has operated for less than 12 months, a projection of the total amount of payment transactions for the subsequent 12 months should be enclosed, from which it is evident that the average total monthly value of executed payment transactions, including payment transactions executed through its agents, does not exceed the amount of EUR 995,000.00.

The prescribed documentation and information to be submitted to the Croatian National Bank for the purpose of entry in the register of payment service providers and electronic money issuers are specified in the Guidelines on the information to be provided for the authorisation of payment institutions and e-money institutions and for the registration of account information service providers under Article 5(5) of Directive (EU) 2015/2366.

Specific requirements concerning certain documentation and information, submitted by the applicant pursuant to Article 60, paragraph (4) of the Electronic Money Act, referring to the application of Article 17 of that Act, are governed in more detail in the following regulations:

• if the applicant intends to provide payment services that are not linked to the issuance of electronic money, with regard to the requirement referred to in Article 17, paragraph (3), item (8) of the Electronic Money Act for the submission of a description of measures intended to be taken to safeguard payment service users' funds in accordance with Article 35 of that Act, the scope of and methodology for the calculation of safeguarded funds and the characteristics of the types of assets and the characteristics of the insurance policy or comparable guarantee as a form of safeguarding are prescribed in more detail in the Decision on safeguarding the payment service users and electronic money holders' funds;
• with regard to the requirement referred to in Article 17, paragraph (3), item (9) of the Electronic Money Act for the submission of a description of the rules for the use of the services of information and communication technology (ICT) are prescribed in more detail in Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 on digital operational resilience for the financial sector (DORA);
• with regard to the requirement referred to in Article 17, paragraph (3), item (10) of the Electronic Money Act concerning the incident reporting mechanism, incident reporting obligations, prescribed in more detail in Chapter III of Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 on digital operational resilience for the financial sector (DORA) should be taken into account;
• with regard to the requirement referred to in Article 17, paragraph (2), item (12) of the Electronic Money Act for the submission of a description of business continuity arrangements, including a clear identification of the critical operations, effective ICT business continuity policy and plans, ICT response and recovery plans and a procedure to regularly test and review the adequacy and efficiency of such plans are prescribed in more detail in Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 on digital operational resilience for the financial sector (DORA);
• with regard to the requirement referred to in Article 17, paragraph (3), item (14) of the Electronic Money Act for the submission of a description of security control and risk mitigation measures taken to ensure a high level of digital operational resilience, are prescribed in more detail in Chapter II of Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 on digital operational resilience for the financial sector (DORA) and Guidelines EBA/2019/04 on ICT and security risk management should also be taken into account in addition to their latest amendment (Guidelines amending Guidelines EBA/2019/04 on ICT and security risk management);
• with regard to the requirement referred to in Article 17, paragraph (3), item (16) of the Electronic Money Act for the submission of a description of the organisational structure, the applicant intending to outsource certain operational activities of the issuance of electronic money or the provision of payment services is required to ensure that the intended outsourcing complies with Article 44 of the Electronic Money Act and the Guidelines on outsourcing arrangements.

In addition to the application and the prescribed documentation, the applicant should also submit a completed and signed Form for the collection and processing of personal data.

Decision of the Croatian National Bank

Based on the submitted application for entry in the register of payment service providers and electronic money issuers and the submitted documentation, the Croatian National Bank decides on the application in an administrative procedure and adopts a decision on entry in the register if all the conditions prescribed in Article 59 of the Electronic Money Act have been met. Legal persons may commence issuing electronic money and providing payment services only after these services have been entered as business activities in the register of companies.