European digital money transfer firm Azimo today announced it has secured a licence from the Dutch Central Bank to operate its services in the Netherlands.
News of the approval follows the recent opening of Azimo’s office in Amsterdam, which aims to help the firm to grow its share of the market for cross-border payments from Europe – which is valued at over €1 trillion.
The licence also guarantees that Azimo will continue to benefit from ‘passporting’ rights to operate across Europe, even with the looming Brexit.
Michael Kent, CEO of Azimo, said: “We looked at many jurisdictions but decided the best place to expand our European operations was the Netherlands.
“Outside the UK, it’s the best place to grow a fintech company in Europe. It offers a welcoming culture open to innovation, access to talent, a thriving banking sector and a strong regulator.”
Azimo’s headquarters will remain in London, and its engineering and operations in Kraków in Poland.
The company enables payments from Europe to more than 200 countries and territories in more than 80 currencies, reaching more than 5 billion potential customers.
Responding to the announcement, Jeroen Nijland, Commissioner for the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency, (NFIA), said: “We welcome this great news from Azimo, showing once again that the Netherlands is a great place to build and scale technology businesses.”
NFIA is an operational unit of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. It assists foreign companies wishing to establish their business in the Netherlands and to take advantage of the Dutch business environment as a strategic base to cover Europe.
Nijland continued: “Our growing ecosystem of fintech companies serves consumers and businesses across the European continent and beyond. Azimo will be in good company amongst global players like Bloomberg and MarketAxess, and homegrown successes such as Adyen and Booking.com.”
