Currency traders or other financial operations

They must register their operations with FI pursuant to the Currency Exchange and Other Financial Activities Act (1996:1006). Those who, to a significant extent, fail in their obligations in their business operations or have been convicted of a serious criminal offence may not conduct operations which are subject to a registration obligation. FI registers the person who submitted the application if the operations are conducted in accordance with the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act (2017:630) and regulations issued pursuant to the act and whether the requirements on owners and management are met.

• Currency trading refers to professional trade of foreign bills and coins and travellers' cheques issued in a foreign currency. Currency trading refers to professional trade of foreign bills and coins and travellers' cheques issued in a foreign currency. If the business consists of offering the purchase of bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies and digital currencies that are used as a means of payment, this is considered other financial operations (provision of a means of payment) and not currency exchange. If currency exchange is offered in a manner other than that the customer exchanges cash for cash, the operations are also covered by the Payment Services Act (2010:751), see more under the "Payment services" link below.
• Other financial operations are professional operations which mainly consist of carrying out one or more of the operations set out in Chapter 7, section 1, points 2, 3 and 5–12 of the Banking and Financing Business Act (2004:297).

The application does not need to be submitted by

• firms referred to in Chapter 1, section 2, first paragraph, points 1–3, 6, 8, 9, 11 and 12 of the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act (2017:630), and
• natural or legal persons conducting insurance distribution in accordance with the Insurance Distribution Act (2018:1219).

FI only conducts supervision of the financial institutions' compliance with the anti-money laundering regulations, but conducts an ownership and management assessment in conjunction with the application (and thereafter annually). Changes in management or owners should be reported to FI.

Fees

A fee of SEK 49,000 for natural persons (SEK 70,000 for applications involving virtual currency) or SEK 98,000 for legal persons (SEK 217,000 for applications involving virtual currency) must be paid to FI. See the fact box for payment information.

FI also charges an annual supervision fee which is currently SEK 5,000 for natural persons and SEK 15,000 for legal persons.

Handling time

FI will make a decision about the registration within 90 days provided that the application is complete and the fee is paid.

Other information

• The firm must append to the application for registration its internal rules for complying with the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act (2017:630) and regulations issued pursuant to this act.
• Swedish financial institutions which are legal persons must submit to FI on an annual basis, although no later than 30 June, information about the qualifying holdings of owners in accordance with FFFS 2011:14.