Electronic Money Association
The Electronic Money Association, or EMA, is the European trade body for electronic money issuers and innovative payment service providers. Its more than 90 members include payment institutions, open banking providers and crypto-asset firms, from large platforms such as Amazon and PayPal to prepaid card issuers, remittance services and business payment providers.
The EMA has represented these firms since 2001 in talks with governments, EU institutions, regulators and consumer bodies. Members meet every month to discuss new rules and consultation responses, and they share good practice on money laundering, fraud and IT security. Branches in six EU countries take the same work to the national supervisors.
Members and membership
The members of the Electronic Money Association include e-commerce and platform businesses, fintech service providers, remittance services, prepaid card issuers, digital currency businesses, account information and payment initiation providers, acquirers and mobile payment specialists. Payment platforms such as PayPal and Stripe sit next to money transfer services such as Wise and Remitly, and crypto firms such as Coinbase, Kraken and Circle are members as well.
The membership package includes a monthly regulatory round-up call, a weekly newsletter on regulatory developments in the EU, the United Kingdom and other markets, and access to all member meetings. Member firms can also use the compliance support of the association and a repository of thousands of briefings and comparison tables between jurisdictions. All members have an equal say in the plenary, which takes the decisions, and a secretariat appointed by the members runs the daily work.
Working groups and subcommittees
Next to the monthly plenary, the EMA runs subcommittees and working groups on specialist topics. The money laundering and fraud subcommittees meet every two months, and the open banking and crypto-asset groups meet every month. Further working groups cover artificial intelligence, the Digital Operational Resilience Act, open finance, central bank digital currencies and authorized push payment scams.
Other groups deal with CESOP, the Central Electronic System of Payment Information of the EU, and with PISA, the Eurosystem oversight framework for electronic payment instruments. The 2026 meeting calendar also lists an EU public policy working group, which meets once a month, and a digital identity working group.
Upcoming payments and fintech events in Europe
Chief executive and team
Thaer Sabri is chief executive of the Electronic Money Association and leads its contact with governments and public institutions. He has worked in electronic money for more than 25 years, starting at the prepaid card scheme Mondex International and the internet startup beenz.com, before he founded Flawless Money in 2001. Thaer Sabri studied at Sheffield University, Imperial College and Birkbeck College in London and is a solicitor in England and Wales.
The members elect the officers every year: a chairperson who presides over the meetings, the chief executive and a minutes secretary. Judith Crawford, Director of Policy and Operations, spoke for the EMA at the Baltic Payment Forum in Vilnius in 2026 about regulatory change for the EU fintech sector.
Policy work and consultations
The EMA has seats on the board of the European Payments Council, the Euro Retail Payments Board and the Payment Services Market Experts Group of the European Commission. It also sits on the ECB group that drafts the digital euro scheme rulebook, an EBA expert group on the transfer of funds and crypto-assets, and the UK Open Banking Steering Group.
The association answers consultations in the EU and the United Kingdom. In autumn 2026 it sent responses on the review of MiCA, on the reporting format of the EU anti-money laundering authority AMLA and on the plans of the British Treasury to modernize payment services regulation. Further responses went to the Consumer Duty of the Financial Conduct Authority and to the design of UK payments infrastructure.
Local branches across Europe
The Electronic Money Association has branches in Belgium, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta and the Netherlands, plus a group for the Middle East. The branches meet every quarter and invite the local supervisors to discuss national questions and their place in the EU framework.
The Luxembourg branch brings together firms with a Luxembourg authorization and talks with the CSSF, the financial intelligence unit CRF and the Ministry of Finance. The branch follows PSD3 and the Payment Services Regulation, instant payments, the EU AML package, MiCAR, the FIDA proposal on financial data access and central bank digital currencies.
Meetings and conferences
The monthly EMA meetings take place in hybrid form on the second Wednesday of the month in central London, and the money laundering and fraud subcommittees join them in alternate months. The branches meet every quarter, and the association adds ad hoc calls when a consultation or a new rule needs a quick answer.
For its 25th anniversary the EMA held its annual general meeting and a conference at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin in October 2026, during the Irish presidency of the Council of the EU. The Luxembourg branch marked the anniversary in April 2026 at the Hôtel Le Royal, where supervisors of the CSSF presented a new circular on governance and risk management. A workshop series prepares members for PSD3 and the Payment Services Regulation.
Addresses and registered association in Germany
The UK office of the Electronic Money Association is at Crescent House, 5 The Crescent, Surbiton KT6 4BN, and its Brussels office is at 67 Square Marie-Louise, 1000 Brussels. The Electronic Money Association e.V. is a registered association under German law, entered in the register of the Düsseldorf local court under VR 10723 and chaired by Thaer Sabri. Its postal address in Germany is Edisonstrasse 63 in 12459 Berlin.
Electronic Money Association and Finance Loop
E-money and payment institutions in Germany work through the same questions that the working groups of the Electronic Money Association discuss: PSD3, the EU AML package and e-money tokens under MiCA. Finance Loop brings people from banks, payment firms and technology providers together at its events on payments and digital money in Germany and Europe.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the institutional use of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, tokenization, stablecoins, and DeFi. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.