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Money Transfer
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Portugal · Payment institution (instituição de pagamento)
Money transfer software for payment institutions in Portugal
Many customers in Portugal send money to family in Brazil, Cape Verde or elsewhere in Europe. Run those corridors, the exchange and the payouts on one platform, with reports that show which customer funds you still hold.
- Family remittances and company payouts
- SEPA, SEPA Instant and SWIFT
- Fees and FX margins from price lists
- Batch payouts with approval
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What a Portuguese payment institution can run
Remittances from an app or a counter
The customer picks a saved recipient or a template, sees the fee and the rate, and confirms. The transfer starts as a draft and is only sent once confirmed.
Currency exchange next to the transfer
A Portuguese payment institution may also carry on the activities of a bureau de change. The platform converts inside the transfer, with margins from price lists your team edits.
Bulk payouts for companies
Payroll for seasonal staff, partner commissions or supplier runs uploaded as a batch file, approved first and executed line by line.
Accounts for customers who send every month
Accounts used only to execute payments. The money held there is not a deposit and not e-money.
Limits for each customer
Client limits in the back office cap amounts per customer, and transfer data feeds your monitoring tool.
What this licence does not cover
- Issuing e-money or prepaid balances, which requires an EMI authorisation.
- Taking deposits or other repayable funds from the public.
- Using payment accounts for anything other than payment services.
- Serving other EEA countries under the Portaria 239/2019 exemption. Passporting needs full authorisation.
What the regulator asks about your IT
Each requirement, what the platform gives you for it and who owns it after launch.
Timestamped transfer and balance reports per customer, the basis your team uses to place funds in the separate account or under insurance.
Your finance team, on platform dataA description of the platform, its hosting and its subcontractors for the outsourcing part of the programme.
You, with our inputCustomer identity, account and address from onboarding attached to each order.
SharedClient limits, onboarding questionnaires and exports for your monitoring and sanctions screening provider.
Your compliance officerLedger exports per service and per period that your accountants and auditor can work from.
Your finance teamDocumentation of backups, recovery and incident handling, including how a stuck transfer is traced and completed or returned.
Shared
Payment rails and providers
Rails your customers can use
SEPA Credit TransferSEPA InstantSWIFTBatch payoutsInternal 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.
30 Dec 2024
Full payer and payee information must travel with every remittance under the recast Transfer of Funds Regulation.
9 Oct 2025
A Portuguese payment institution offers the payee name check on every euro credit transfer it sends.
9 Apr 2027
Payment institutions offering euro transfers must be able to send and receive them instantly.
10 Jul 2027
The AML Regulation applies across the EU, replacing parts of Law 83/2017 with directly applicable rules.
Around 2028
PSD3 and the Payment Services Regulation apply once published, and existing PIs must show they meet the new rules.
Applying to the Banco de Portugal as a payment institution? Name us in your file.
The Banco de Portugal has three months from a complete file, and 12 months from the first submission at most. For a remittance business the questions centre on agents, corridors and protected funds, and a running platform answers them faster than a narrative.
01
A platform you can demonstrate
A configured environment to show the regulator, not slides.
02
The technical part of your application, prepared
Payment flows, security, outsourcing, ICT risk under DORA and continuity sections of your Banco de Portugal file.
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.
How a remittance launch usually runs
A Porto firm plans transfers to Brazil and Cape Verde through an app and a handful of shops in districts with large migrant communities. It applies for authorisation covering money remittance, lists the shops as agents in its programme of operations and uses our environment to show how an order is drafted, checked against client limits and paid out.
After authorisation, euro transfers leave over SEPA Instant and other currencies over SWIFT through a connected provider. Every morning the finance team takes the platform's transfer report and checks funds in transit against the safeguarding account.
Further reading: our Portugal EMI and PI guide and the PSD3 and PSR guide.
Read the licence guides
FAQ
EUR 20,000 if money remittance is the only service, EUR 50,000 for payment initiation and EUR 125,000 for services such as payment accounts, transfers or card issuing.
Portaria 239/2019 offers an exemption with EUR 50,000 capital for companies based in Portugal whose monthly payment volume averages no more than EUR 3 million. It covers account, transfer, card and acquiring services but not money remittance on its own, it gives no passport, and full authorisation must be sought within 30 days of crossing the limits.
Protected funds are kept out of the liquidation estate, and customers can claim them back separately. That only works if your records show whose money is whose at any moment.
The RJSPME lets a payment institution carry on the activities of a bureau de change, under the rules that apply to those businesses. Ask your lawyers which approvals that triggers.
Yes. Describe them in your programme of operations, including the on-site and off-site checks you run on them at least once a year. How agents access the platform is agreed during setup.
No. It passes customer and transfer data to your monitoring tool. Reporting to the Portuguese financial intelligence unit stays with your compliance officer.
