Financial Services License Liechtenstein: Which FMA Authorisation Fits Your Business

No. Advice on which licence you need is a trustee activity (TrHG Art. 2(c)), and legal advice is reserved to lawyers (RAG Art. 8(1)(a)). ABB collects your documents and coordinates the file. A licensed trustee or lawyer, named in the engagement letter, advises and submits it, and the FMA decides. A ready-made company does not skip the FMA's tests.

Not as a bank. A firm without a bank licence may not use names that suggest it is a bank in its company name or stated purpose. We state no name rule for investment firms on this page. Your licensed adviser checks the wording before you register a name or print any material.

No. The FMA may not refuse a bank licence on the ground that the market needs no further bank. It grants the licence only if a complete application was submitted and the conditions of Art. 18 to 23 BankG are met, and it may attach conditions. Capital, shareholders, board and management are all tested.

For most items in the FMAG annex the fee covers a refusal as well as a grant, so it is not returned. The annex names refusal for banks, payment and e-money institutions, asset managers, investment firms and insurers. A proceeding closed without a ruling can also be charged, and very large proceedings may be billed by time.

The acts set maximum periods counted from a complete application, not the time the FMA needs. A bank and an asset management company: six months. Payment and e-money institutions: three months. AIFM: three months, extendable to six. UCITS management company: one month, extendable to six. The insurance act sets no deadline. Actual processing times are not published here.

Banking, investment services, asset management, insurance, fund management, payment services, e-money and crypto-asset services each have their own act and licence. Small AIFMs and account-information-only payment providers register instead of applying. For forex or CFD business no specific act was found, so the licensed adviser classifies your model.

A bank needs at least EUR 10 million, fully paid in before it starts; in justified cases the FMA may set a different amount, never below EUR 5 million. Asset management company: at least EUR 75,000, paid in at grant; AIFM and UCITS management companies EUR 125,000, or EUR 300,000 if self-managed. None is stated for insurers or investment firms.

Under the FMAG annex, 2026 state, the licence fee is CHF 100,000 for a bank, CHF 35,000 for an investment firm (plus CHF 10,000 for an MTF or OTF), CHF 15,000 for a class 2 asset manager and CHF 80,000 for an insurer. These are FMA fees only.

A bank may only be an AG or an SE, with seat and head office in Liechtenstein. An insurer may be an AG, an SE, a cooperative or an SCE, and a special-purpose vehicle may also be a trust enterprise (Treuunternehmen). Insurer and asset manager also need seat and head office in Liechtenstein.

The FMA fee is CHF 80,000, or CHF 40,000 for a captive insurer. The insurer needs a licence before it starts and a seat and head office in Liechtenstein. The application covers own funds, qualifying shareholders, management, the external auditor and an activity plan. The act sets no decision deadline, and no capital figure is stated here.

WPFG licence; the licensed adviser sets out capital, conditions and period. FMA fee: CHF 35,000, plus CHF 10,000 for an MTF or OTF. A WPFG-authorised firm providing Annex 1 Section A no. 3 and 6 services must apply for a bank licence within six months once its twelve-month average assets, or its group's, reach EUR 30 billion (BankG Art. 17(1)).

We name no act, article or licence for forex or CFD business and promise none, because no specific act was found. Which regime applies, if any, depends on how the business is built. The licensed trustee or lawyer assesses this before any application work starts.

Not under the same company. An asset management licence requires that the company holds no further special-law licence under the Trustee, Lawyers, Patent Attorneys or Auditors Acts (VVG Art. 6(1)). A trustee or lawyer who advises on your application is therefore a separate licensed professional, named in the engagement letter.

The FMA keeps public registers, each updated monthly, of AIFMs, asset management companies, UCITS management companies and IUG management companies, and registers of payment and e-money institutions. It also lists licence holders on its register page. For banks, insurers and investment firms, use that page or ask the FMA before you sign with a provider.

Base amount plus variable add-on, capped yearly (FMAG Art. 30a). A bank outside consolidated supervision pays CHF 100,000 plus 0.001% of its balance-sheet total, plus surcharges per branch and per representative office abroad; the maximum is CHF 250,000, or CHF 1,300,000 with those or in a consolidated group. A class 2 asset manager: CHF 8,000 plus 0.0015% of assets managed.