Zolvat Ltd
Limassol · BIC ZOLTCY22XXX
Open a business payment account with Zolvat A Cyprus-licensed payment account for businesses operating across Europe and internationally, with support from your Cyprus lawyer
Zolvat Ltd is a Cyprus-licensed electronic money institution providing payment accounts and international payment services to eligible companies and individuals. Through my law office, I can help you assess whether Zolvat is suitable for your business, prepare the required corporate and identification documents, and assist throughout the application process.
The application is submitted to Zolvat. Zolvat remains solely responsible for customer due diligence, risk assessment, account approval and the services made available to each customer. I act for you, not for the provider, and I promise no outcome.
About the provider
What the licence permits is a matter of record. What a particular customer receives is confirmed during onboarding.
Zolvat Ltd is an electronic money institution authorised and supervised by the Central Bank of Cyprus, with its registered office in Limassol.
As a licensed electronic money institution, Zolvat may provide the electronic money and payment services covered by its authorisation, subject to regulatory requirements, jurisdictional coverage, internal acceptance policies and the availability of the relevant payment infrastructure.
Zolvat is not a bank and does not provide bank deposits or lending merely by opening a payment account. It is licensed and supervised in Cyprus, and the framework agreement is governed by Cyprus law, which for a client based here means the institution, the supervisor and your lawyer are in the same jurisdiction.
Whether it is the right route for your company is the first question I answer, before any application is made.
The core work
A payment account for international business
Businesses operating internationally may need to receive customer payments, pay suppliers and contractors, process payroll, hold or transfer multiple currencies, convert between them, and maintain clear records explaining the payment activity. What follows is what the account may provide, and what I do.
What may be available
- A business electronic money account
- Dedicated account details or IBAN services
- SEPA credit transfers
- International payments through SWIFT or other supported routes
- Multi-currency balances and currency conversion
- Mass-payment functionality
- Business expense-management tools
- Card, acquiring or other payment services, where separately available and approved
Availability depends on the customer profile, jurisdiction, business model, currencies and expected activity. Not every service is available to every customer: account features, currencies, payment routes, limits and additional products are confirmed by Zolvat during onboarding.
Why apply through a Cyprus lawyer
- An initial review of the proposed applicant and activity
- Identifying eligibility or documentation issues before submission
- Preparing a business-model description and ownership chart
- Collecting corporate, identification, address and beneficial-owner documents
- Certifying copies where legally permitted and acceptable to Zolvat
- Coordinating translations, apostilles or other legalisation where required
- Preparing source-of-funds and source-of-wealth information
- Explaining expected payment flows and counterparties
- Assisting with responses to onboarding questions
- Communicating with Zolvat on application progress
Opening a regulated account requires more than certificates and identification: the provider must understand ownership and control, the genuine business activity, customers and suppliers, requested payment routes, expected volumes and source of funds. My role is to prepare an application in which all of these fit together. My involvement does not replace Zolvat’s own customer due diligence: Zolvat may require direct identity and liveness verification, additional documents, further questions or an interview, and no lawyer, introducer or intermediary can guarantee approval.
The services
Available payment services
The services offered within Zolvat’s authorisation, and what each of them covers.
Dedicated account details and IBAN services
Eligible customers may receive dedicated payment-account details or IBAN services, so that incoming payments carry the holder’s own details rather than a shared reference. The form of the account details, the issuing institution, the supported currencies and the payment routes are confirmed for each customer.
SEPA payments
Eligible customers may send and receive euro payments through supported SEPA routes. Standard or instant availability, limits, cut-off times and processing arrangements depend on the account configuration and the payment infrastructure.
International payments
Eligible customers may send and receive international payments through SWIFT or other supported routes. Correspondent or intermediary institutions may be involved, so timing, deductions and charges can vary.
Multi-currency services and conversion
Customers may be able to hold, receive, transfer or convert supported currencies within the same account. The exact currencies and capabilities are confirmed during onboarding, with rates and charges communicated under the applicable terms and fee schedule.
Mass payments
Mass-payment functionality may be available for approved customers, for payroll, contractor and supplier runs. Supported formats, currencies, limits and implementation requirements are agreed separately.
Cards and payment acceptance
Zolvat’s authorisation covers issuing payment instruments and acquiring payment transactions. Corporate cards, card issuing, e-commerce acquiring, POS acquiring, QR payments and other acceptance services are separate products, not features of the account, and their availability depends on sector, transaction profile, countries, technical requirements, card-scheme rules and Zolvat or partner approval.
None of the above is a commitment that a particular service will be offered. What is actually available is confirmed by Zolvat during onboarding, and where a service matters to your commercial or technical planning, written confirmation should be obtained before anything is built on it.
Client types
Who may be suitable
Zolvat primarily serves operating businesses requiring European or international payment capability. Personal accounts exist on the same rails, generally alongside a corporate relationship.
Cyprus, EU and EEA companies
Operating companies with customers, suppliers and staff inside Europe, making regular payroll, contractor, supplier or group payments.
International companies
Companies incorporated outside the Union with legitimate European customers, suppliers, marketplaces or service providers.
Individuals
Personal accounts, generally for directors, shareholders and families already connected to a company on the platform.
Business profiles the provider commonly serves
Technology and software
Recurring collections in several currencies from several countries.
Professional-service firms
Cross-border billing, receipt tied to invoice.
Trading companies
Importers and exporters paying and being paid across borders.
E-commerce
Online businesses selling into more than one member state.
Payroll and group payments
Regular payment runs to staff, contractors or group companies.
These examples do not constitute automatic acceptance; each applicant is assessed individually. Zolvat will consider the country of incorporation and the countries of operation, the residence and nationality of beneficial owners and controllers, the industry and the precise commercial activity and whether it is regulated, the website and public business presence, the complexity of the ownership, the source of initial and ongoing funds, the expected volumes, currencies and payment corridors, the customers, suppliers and counterparties and their jurisdictions, any previous account refusal, restriction or closure, and whether Zolvat and its partners can support the proposed activity. Incorporation in Cyprus or another EEA country does not, by itself, guarantee eligibility.
Before anything else
How client funds are held
Most pages about alternative providers leave this out or bury it in a footer. It is the first thing I put in writing to a client, because it decides how the money is protected if anything goes wrong.
Zolvat is not a bank and your balance is not a deposit. It issues electronic money, and client funds are held in segregated safeguarding accounts, kept apart from the firm’s own money and other assets, and neither lent out nor invested.
Funds received from clients are separated from the firm’s own money as soon as they arrive, and are held either in dedicated safeguarding accounts with tier-one banking partners at authorised credit institutions in the European Economic Area, or in secure, low-risk assets approved by the Central Bank of Cyprus. An insurance policy or a bank guarantee payable in full on insolvency is a further permitted alternative.
The institution must at all times hold enough to cover one hundred per cent of the electronic money it holds on behalf of clients.
A bank deposit is protected differently, by the Deposit Guarantee and Resolution of Credit and Other Institutions Scheme, which pays out quickly but stops at €100.000 per depositor per institution.
Safeguarding is not that scheme and does not replace it. It covers the whole balance rather than a capped part of it, and it works through segregation rather than through a guarantee fund.
The European Banking Authority’s guidelines on restrictive measures, EBA/GL/2024/14 and EBA/GL/2024/15, adopted by the Central Bank of Cyprus, require continuous automated screening of customers, beneficial owners and payment counterparties against sanctions lists before transfers are executed. The second set applies specifically to payment service providers. In practice this means a file that is complete and coherent from the start is what keeps automated screening producing clean results rather than queries.
Verification
Checked against the register, not the brochure
Anyone can print a licence number on a website. Before I put a client in front of a provider I read the public registers myself, and these are the entries that carry the position.
Point 3 of that Annex covers the execution of payment transactions on a payment account, which is credit transfers, direct debits and card payments. Point 5 covers the issuing of payment instruments and the acquiring of payment transactions. The governing statutes are the Electronic Money Laws of 2012 and 2018, Law 81(I)/2012 as amended by Law 30(I)/2018, transposing Directive 2009/110/EC, and the Provision and Use of Payment Services and Access to Payment Systems Laws of 2018 to 2022, transposing Directive (EU) 2015/2366. The authorisation defines what the institution may do; the services made available to a particular customer are decided by the institution within it.
A Cyprus authorisation is not a Cyprus-only authorisation. Under Article 28 of the Payment Services Directive and Article 3 of the Electronic Money Directive, the licence is notified into another member state rather than applied for again there. Which host states have actually been notified is a question of record rather than of marketing. If your customers, your staff or your suppliers sit in a particular member state, tell me which one at the start and I will confirm the position against the European Banking Authority register and the Central Bank of Cyprus notifications, in writing, before anything is signed.
What it costs
Fees
Zolvat’s fees depend on customer type, country, business activity, services, payment routes, currencies, volumes, risk classification and implementation requirements. Before entering into the account agreement, you are provided with or directed to the applicable fee schedule.
The profile
Customer type, country of incorporation or residence, and the precise business activity.
The services
Payment routes, currencies, expected volumes and any additional products requested.
The risk classification
The provider’s own assessment of the file, which follows from the two above.
The usual categories are application or onboarding fees, account-maintenance fees, incoming and outgoing payment fees, SEPA and international-transfer fees, foreign-exchange charges, compliance or investigation fees where applicable, card or acquiring charges where those products apply, and intermediary or correspondent charges on international payments. How the activity is described at the outset shapes the classification, and correcting a description afterwards is considerably harder than drafting it properly the first time, which is why it belongs with the lawyer rather than with whoever fills in the form. Pricing is set by Zolvat and changes from time to time. I confirm the schedule in force in writing before anything is signed, and my legal and professional fees are separate from Zolvat’s fees.
The process
The application process
Initial suitability review
The company, the ownership, the activity, the website, the countries, the counterparties, the expected volumes, currencies and routes, and any account previously refused, restricted or closed. On that picture I give a direct answer about whether the application is worth making at all. Some activities fall outside what the provider will take as a matter of policy, and no application will change that.
Preparation of the application file
Certificate of incorporation and current registry extracts, constitutional documents, registers of directors, shareholders and beneficial owners, identification and recent address evidence for the relevant individuals, an ownership and control chart, evidence of genuine activity such as the website, contracts, invoices or financial information, expected transaction volumes, currencies, countries and counterparties, and evidence supporting the source of initial and ongoing funds. Documents must be current, legible and consistent. Foreign documents do not automatically require an apostille in every case: translation, certification, apostille and legalisation depend on the document, the issuing country and Zolvat’s procedures, and I confirm what is required for the particular application. I certify copies where legally permitted and acceptable to the provider.
Online application
The application is submitted through Zolvat’s onboarding process. The relevant individuals may be asked to complete direct identity and liveness verification.
Compliance review
Zolvat performs its own customer due diligence: sanctions and politically-exposed-person screening, adverse-information checks, source-of-funds review and risk assessment. Follow-up questions are answered in writing, because a half-documented explanation given under pressure becomes the version everything filed afterwards is read against.
Decision and configuration
Zolvat approves or declines the application and, where approved, confirms the available services, currencies, account details, payment routes, limits, fees and access rights. The first payment should not also be the first test.
How long does onboarding take
There is no guaranteed approval period. Timing depends on completeness, ownership complexity, industry, countries, registry information, any enhanced due diligence, applicant responsiveness, document formalities and the availability of payment routes or services. A complete and consistent application can generally be assessed more efficiently. Neither my law office nor Zolvat should be presented as promising approval within a fixed number of days.
I cannot promise you an account, and no lawyer honestly can. What I can do is make sure that nothing in the file is the reason for a refusal.
Before the account
If you are earlier in the sequence
An application is read as a record of positions already taken. Two of them are examined in every file, and neither can be adjusted while the file is under review.
Start here
Start with a preliminary assessment
To assess whether an application may be appropriate, please have ready: the company name and country of incorporation, the website, a short business description, the beneficial owners and their countries of residence, the principal customers and suppliers, the expected payment volumes, the currencies and any routes or products required, the expected source of funds, and details of any account previously refused, restricted or closed. That is enough for an initial discussion about suitability and documentation. It is not an application, an approval or a commitment by Zolvat.
Payment and electronic money services are provided by Zolvat Ltd, registration number HE 422567, of 213B Archbishop Makarios III Avenue, Maximos Plaza, Office 3, 3105 Limassol, Cyprus, authorised and supervised by the Central Bank of Cyprus as an electronic money institution under licence number 115.1.3.59. Zolvat is not a bank, does not accept deposits and does not provide deposit accounts, and an electronic money balance is not covered by a bank deposit-guarantee scheme; further information is set out in the provider’s customer terms and safeguarding disclosures. All applications are subject to identification, verification, customer due diligence, sanctions screening, risk assessment, jurisdictional restrictions, internal acceptance policies and applicable laws and regulations. Account details, IBAN availability, currencies, payment routes, limits, timing, pricing, cards, acquiring and other features are determined by Zolvat and may depend on regulated banking or payment partners.
This page describes legal and administrative assistance provided by my law office to prospective applicants. I am an advocate registered with the Cyprus Bar Association and I act for the applicant as an independent Cyprus lawyer. I may assist with preparing and presenting an application and may introduce the applicant to Zolvat. I do not provide payment, electronic money or investment services, I do not make account-opening decisions on behalf of Zolvat, and I do not guarantee approval, activation, transaction processing or the continued availability of any service. Any commercial relationship or other interest capable of affecting my independence will be disclosed as required before instructions are accepted. This page is general information and does not constitute legal, tax, regulatory, financial or investment advice for any particular person or business.