LONDON, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, September 28, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — MSL, the cloud-native card issuing and processing platform, today announced that it has signed its first licensees in Europe under its Processor Licence model. MSL also confirmed that every client on its managed service now has a guaranteed right to move to a licence at any time.
First introduced in October 2024, the Processor Licence enables banks, e-money institutions, programme managers and technology providers to become card processors in their own right. Licensees run MSL’s platform in their own cloud environment, including AWS and Azure, and certify directly with the card schemes. MSL supports each licensee through the certification process.
The licence covers issuer processing, a core banking “lite” layer, AML and compliance monitoring, and MSL’s fraud prevention module. The platform is modular, so clients deploy only the components they need.
Addressing the “success tax”
Around 40,000 card issuers worldwide rely on fewer than 50 processors operating at scale. MSL believes this imbalance creates what it calls the “success tax”: as an issuer’s programme grows, its processing costs rise with it, and switching providers becomes more costly and disruptive.
MSL’s model removes that trade-off. Clients can begin on the managed service and move to a licence when they are ready. They keep the same codebase, APIs and webhooks throughout, so no migration project is needed.
“There are fewer than 50 processors operating at scale for around 40,000 issuers, and that imbalance leaves issuers with very little leverage,” said Conor Doyle, CEO of MSL. “We experienced this first-hand at Prepaid Financial Services. As our business grew, so did our processing costs, and we ultimately invested years and millions building our own platform. Most issuers can’t take that route, and they shouldn’t have to. The Processor Licence gives them a proven platform they can own outright.”
Lower cost, greater control
Under the licence, per-transaction and per-account processing fees are replaced by a flat licence fee. For issuers with more than 100,000 active cardholders, MSL estimates savings of 60% to 80% compared with typical industry processing rates.
“The economics speak for themselves, but control matters just as much,” said Lee Britton, Co-Founder and Strategic Director of MSL. “An issuer’s processor is one of the most critical dependencies in its business. With a licence, that dependency comes in-house, on a platform the issuer already knows and has already integrated with. For boards and risk committees, that is a significant change.”
For European institutions, the model also supports compliance with the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). It brings a critical outsourced service under the institution’s direct operational control and reduces third-party concentration risk.
Choice at every stage
MSL will continue to offer its managed service alongside the licence. Clients can choose the deployment that suits them, whether managed service, licence or a hybrid of both, and can change that choice as their business evolves.
“We have seen what happens to programmes when a processor fails or a business changes hands,” added Doyle. “No issuer should be constrained by its own growth or exposed to someone else’s decisions. The market needs more processors, and our aim is to help create them.”
MSL plans to expand the licence model globally over the coming years.
About MSL
MSL is a cloud-native card issuance, transaction processing and multi-currency wallet infrastructure provider serving banks, e-money institutions, payment institutions and programme managers. Headquartered in London, with operations in Spain, Malta and the United States, MSL is a Mastercard-certified issuer processor and holds Visa certification in Latin America and the Caribbean. The platform is available as a managed service, as a licence, or as a hybrid, with AML/CFT and fraud monitoring built in.
For more information, visit www.themsl.com or contact sales@themsl.com.
Conor Doyle
MSL Edge Europe
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