Frequently asked questions

We help financial firms get authorised and give them the technology to operate. There are two services — regulatory authorisation advisory, which includes people and governance, and a white-label technology platform. Firms can take either, or both.

We write and manage the full application and deal with the regulator's questions through to a decision. The authorisation is granted to your firm — a regulator authorises the applicant, not its adviser — but we run the process with you from start to finish.

No. Pitchsd is an advisory and technology firm; it is not itself regulated and does not provide regulated advice. Your firm remains responsible for its own authorisation and regulatory conduct. Where regulated or legal advice is required, we work alongside the appropriate licensed professionals.

We work worldwide, with the deepest experience in UK and European regimes. We also help firms authorise across the Gulf, Asia-Pacific, North America and established offshore centres — and, importantly, help them choose the right jurisdiction in the first place.

E-money and payments, lending and consumer credit, investment and wealth management, insurance, and cryptoassets. Our authorisation approach is the same across all of them, tailored to the permissions each requires.

It depends on the regime, the firm and the completeness of the application. As a rough guide, a payments or e-money authorisation often takes several months to around a year from a complete submission, and more complex permissions can take longer. Part of our job is to make the application complete and credible so it is not delayed unnecessarily.

Yes. We provide a white-label platform — a customer app and an operator console for onboarding, monitoring and reporting — that you can put your own brand on. It can be taken with the authorisation work or on its own.

Yes. Through our network we can put senior people into a business, including a fractional MLRO or compliance lead, non-executive directors, and CFO or CEO experience, as well as help you recruit your permanent team.

It depends on the permissions, the jurisdiction and how much of the work you need. We scope each engagement individually and there is no charge for the first conversation, in which we set out what your authorisation is likely to involve.

The FCA's cryptoasset authorisation gateway opens on 30 September 2026, applications close on 28 February 2027, and the regime takes effect in October 2027. Pre-application meetings with the regulator are already available, so firms that will need authorisation can begin now.