Multipass is a financial services provider offering global business accounts, multi-currency payments, and cross-border transaction solutions.
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Digital Banking
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Bulgaria · EMI
A white-label banking app for e-money institutions licensed in Bulgaria
On 1 January 2026 every lev balance in Bulgaria turned into euro overnight, at 1.95583 to one. An e-money app launching now starts in the euro area from day one, with no lev legacy to carry. We supply the app, the account ledger and the back office, and your team in Sofia handles the licence and the customers.
- Branded iOS, Android and web apps
- Bulgarian and English interface, plus other languages
- Euro e-money accounts with SEPA transfers
- Cards issued through your card partner
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What a Bulgarian EMI can put in front of customers
A euro account in the pocket
Customers open an e-money account on their phone, top it up and pay out to any SEPA IBAN. The balance, fees and history are shown in Bulgarian or English, whichever they pick.
Cards linked to the e-money balance
Virtual cards right after sign-up and plastic on request, with freeze, limits and PIN handled in the app. The issuing contract sits between you and your card partner.
Business accounts for local companies
Onboarding for OOD and AD companies with owner checks through connected providers, several users per company and payments that wait for a second approver.
Electronic meal voucher programmes
If you work with an electronic meal voucher operator, Bulgarian law wants its funds in a safeguarding account of their own. The ledger keeps those balances apart from other e-money so each account reconciles on its own.
Spending pockets without interest
Sub-balances for bills or a holiday, held as e-money and labelled clearly, because a Bulgarian EMI may not pay interest or any benefit linked to how long money sits there.
What this licence does not cover
- Deposits, or interest and time-based rewards on e-money. The Law on Payment Services and Payment Systems forbids both.
- Loans funded from the money customers hold with you.
- A lighter registration-only start. The Bulgarian law has no small EMI route, so every issuer needs the full BNB licence and EUR 350,000 of initial capital.
What the regulator asks about your IT
Each requirement, what the platform gives you for it and who owns it after launch.
Technical descriptions of the platform in plain English, structured so your translator can turn them into Bulgarian without guessing.
You, with our inputBack office roles for the Sofia management team to approve customers, limits and exceptions, with each action logged.
YouA ledger that shows what is owed to each e-money holder, reconciled to your safeguarding account and exported for your finance team.
Your finance teamCard top-ups recorded with their settlement status, so pending funds and safeguarded funds are visible side by side.
Your finance teamArchitecture, hosting, access control, backup and incident procedures documented for your file and your register of information.
You, with our inputOnboarding questionnaires per client type and identity checks through connected providers, with the evidence kept on each customer file.
Your AML officerTwo-factor confirmation in the apps for sign-in and payment approval.
Crassula
Payment rails and providers
Rails your customers can use
SEPA Credit TransferSEPA InstantSWIFTCard paymentsInternal transfers
24/7
real-time processing, no batch window
60+
payment and provider integrations connected
150+
companies run on Crassula
15+
languages the platform speaks
Dates to plan around
Rules that change what you have to build, in the order they apply.
17 Jan 2025
DORA applies to Bulgarian EMIs. The 2025 amendments to the payments law tie the licence conditions on ICT and incident reporting to DORA.
5 Aug 2025
Amendments to the payments law take effect. A safeguarding account may now also be held at a central bank, not only at a bank.
1 Jan 2026
Bulgaria adopts the euro. Lev balances convert at 1.95583, the EMI capital requirement reads EUR 350,000 and the BNB review fee becomes EUR 5,000.
1 Jan 2027
Payee name checks and equal charges for instant and regular euro transfers apply in Bulgaria, one year after the euro arrived.
9 Apr 2027
Bulgarian EMIs that offer euro transfers must be able to send and receive them instantly.
Around 2028
PSD3 and the Payment Services Regulation are expected to apply, with e-money moving under the payment institution framework.
Writing an EMI application for the BNB? Bring us in before the translation starts.
The file goes to the BNB in Bulgarian, so every late change to the IT sections costs a second round of translation. We set up a working environment first and write the technical parts around it, so the text you translate is the text that stays.
01
A platform you can demonstrate
A configured environment to show the regulator, not slides.
02
The technical part of your application, prepared
IT architecture, authentication, ICT risk and DORA, outsourcing and continuity sections, written in English for translation into Bulgarian.
03
Providers lined up
Banking, safeguarding and KYC providers from our network, matched to your licence.
Crassula provides technology and documentation support. We do not provide legal or regulatory advice and cannot guarantee the outcome of an application.
From idea to a Sofia launch
Picture a team that wants to give Bulgarian freelancers a euro account with a card, opened in ten minutes and run entirely in Bulgarian. They form an OOD, pay in the capital and send the BNB their application with a branded demo environment already running.
The BNB has three months to decide. When it asks for more documents, the team has up to two months to provide them, and a fresh three-month period starts once they arrive. The team uses that time to agree a safeguarding account with a bank and test card issuing with its partner. After the licence, it opens sign-ups in Bulgaria and notifies its passport for Romania and Greece.
Background reading: the Bulgaria EMI and PI guide and our overview of EMI licensing in the EU.
Read the licence guides
FAQ
EUR 5,000 since 1 January 2026, under BNB Ordinance No 16. Before the euro it was BGN 10,000. Opening a branch abroad is entered in the BNB register for EUR 1,000 per branch.
No. Ordinance No 16 asks for the application documents in Bulgarian, and any document in another language must come with a Bulgarian translation. Formal documents from abroad must also be legalised. Our technical sections are written in English and built to be translated.
The law gives the BNB three months from the application. If documents are missing, it sets a deadline of up to two months to supply them, and then has another three months to decide. Plan for a longer total than the headline figure.
Lev balances were converted to euro on 1 January 2026 at the fixed rate of 1.95583. A new EMI issues e-money in euro from the start, and the platform keeps every balance and fee in euro.
On a separate safeguarding account at a bank licensed in an EU member state or at a central bank. Unlike some countries, Bulgaria does not offer insurance or investment in liquid assets as an alternative.
The registered office and head office must be in Bulgaria, at the place where the company is actually managed, and part of the payment business must be carried out there. Engineers and support can sit elsewhere, since the platform runs in the cloud.
