BELGIUM Law and Practice Contributed by: Joan Carette, Philippe De Prez and Thomas Derval, Simont Braun
Payment Services The payment sector in Belgium is varied, with impor - tant activity on the B2B side, notably in the field of professional FX payments and acquiring services for merchants. Post-Brexit, several international money remitters have located their EEA headquarters in Bel - gium, which has then attracted other money remitters who are looking for a level regulatory playing field and, therefore, wish to be supervised by the same authority as many of their major competitors. Investment Services In Belgium, both incumbents and fintechs offer inno - vative investment solutions covering various types of investments, but also aiming at different types of clients. Automated investment solutions provided via well-designed smartphone apps and relying on exchange-traded funds and automation of portfolio management are especially on the rise. Regtechs and Fintechs Belgium has many regtechs, providing solutions to all verticals of the financial sector. They cover a broad scope of services, including identification services, authentication services, information analysis, trans - action monitoring, platform as a service, automat - ed DORA-compliance tools, etc. Fintechs are also The regime for payment verticals is governed by the Belgian Law of 11 March 2018 on the status and super - vision of payment institutions and electronic money institutions (PI & EMI Law), transposing EU Directive 2015/2366 of 25 November 2015 on payment services in the internal market (PSD2). This transposition has been very straightforward, and Belgium does not have any significant “gold plating”. While the legal texts are generally a copy-paste of the European legislation, their interpretation by the rel - evant Belgian regulator (the National Bank of Belgium, or NBB) may differ from other European jurisdictions. For instance, the regulator interprets the notions of “payment services” and “payment accounts” quite broadly. increasingly active in ESG. 2.2 Regulatory Regime PSD2
In November 2025, the EU reached a political agree - ment on the revision of PSD2, paving the way for a new regulatory package composed of PSD3 and PSR. Once adopted, this package is expected to amend the regulatory framework in Belgium. E-Money Contrary to other regulators, the NBB reserves the qualification of “e-money” to very specific prepaid products and does not automatically consider all wallets/account solutions as e-money. In practice, this interpretation has no real impact, and business models developed under an e-money licence abroad are pursued in Belgium under a payment institution licence. 2.3 Compensation Models Compensation models in the payments industry vary significantly depending on the actual application. Per - sonal payment applications are often offered free of charge for the user (or included in the general services if offered by an incumbent bank). On B2B and espe - cially in FX service provision, compensation models are often inspired by the (anticipated) volumes of FX payments generated by the clients. In both cases, regulated market players are subject to pre-contractual information requirements, including a disclosure obligation on the pricing of their services. However, the extent of such requirements will depend on the customers (consumers or others). This may be subject to change with the upcoming PSD3 and PSR regulation (see 2.2 Regulatory Regime ), which are expected to further strengthen transparency require - ments once they enter into force. 2.4 Variations Between the Regulation of Fintech and Legacy Players Most financial regulations originate from EU legisla - tion, which does not differentiate between fintech and legacy players. However, EU regulators should apply them in a proportionate manner, which allows for some differentiation in practice. The Belgian regu - lator follows this and applies a “same business, same risks, same rules” principle which, combined with the “proportionality” principle, provides for a strict but generally pragmatic approach.
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