Noah got two EU licences in one day. Who is it for?

The short answer

On 30 September 2026 Latvijas Banka gave Noah LV SIA, the Latvian company of London-based Noah, two licences at once: a crypto-asset service provider licence under MiCA and a payment institution licence. Together they let Noah hold, exchange and send stablecoins and make euro credit transfers for clients across the EU. Noah sells through an API to platforms, wallets and payroll firms. A company cannot open a business account with it directly.

• 2 licences granted to Noah LV SIA on the same day, 30 September 2026 (Latvijas Banka).
• 12 companies hold a MiCA licence from Latvijas Banka; 13 hold a payment institution licence (1 October 2026).
• More than 40 licences, registrations and approvals across the US, Canada and the EU, by Noah's own count.

What Latvijas Banka approved

Latvijas Banka published the decision on 1 October 2026. The two licences cover these services:

A MiCA licence from one EU country works in all of them: the holder can serve the other member states through the cross-border notification process, as Latvijas Banka's announcement says. A payment institution licence can be passported in the same way. Noah says it can now offer stablecoin and fiat payments in all 27 EU countries, and that it expects to get direct access to SEPA.

Noah told The Paypers it got the payment institution licence in about one month and the MiCA licence in about two. That is Noah's figure, not the regulator's.

What Noah sells

Noah's home page describes three products, all through one API:

Its clients are businesses that move other people's money: remittance apps, wallets, marketplaces, payroll platforms and crypto exchanges. The logos on its site include Ledger, Circle, Checkout.com, Opera's MiniPay and Deel. Ledger uses Noah to give its users EUR and USD accounts linked to stablecoins. Noah reported 150 new clients in 2026 and a $16 million seed extension in October, bringing its seed funding to $38 million.

The site has no sign-up form, only "Book a demo". That is why Noah is not in the Finzil directory as a business account. It is on our list of infrastructure providers, with Swan, Modulr, Currencycloud, Mangopay, Rapyd, Nium, Banking Circle, Thunes and TerraPay, and will get a short profile when that section opens.

Why Latvia keeps appearing

Noah is not the first firm to collect both licences from Latvijas Banka. Neverless got its MiCA licence there in May 2026 and its payment institution licence on the same day as Noah, 30 September. The pairing makes sense for a stablecoin payments firm: MiCA covers the crypto side, and the payment licence covers the euros that arrive and leave by bank transfer.

Our view: the licence that matters most to a business is usually not the one in the headline. It is the one held by the company whose name is on the account details.

The company behind your account

Of the accounts on Finzil, 21 are run by one company and issued or held by another, according to their own safeguarding notes. The app is what you see; the licence and the safeguarded money sit with the partner. Noah will now be one of those partners for stablecoin and euro flows.

Seven examples, with the partner's licence:

This matters in three moments. When you ask whether your money is protected, the answer depends on the partner: a bank deposit, e-money safeguarding or a stablecoin balance are three different things. When an account is frozen, the review is often run by the partner's compliance team, not the app's. And when the partnership ends, the app's customers are moved to a new partner or asked to leave.

What to do

1. Find the licence holder. Look in the account terms or the website footer for "issued by", "provided by" or "held at". That is the company that holds the licence for your account.
2. Check it on the register. Latvijas Banka, the FCA, the ACPR in France and other regulators publish their registers. Search for the legal name, not the brand.
3. Ask how stablecoins are handled. If a provider pays you in or converts to stablecoins, ask which company does the conversion and under which licence. After Noah's approval, the answer for some EU platforms may be Noah LV SIA.
4. Keep records of every conversion. The wallet address, the transaction hash and the bank transfer that followed. Our stablecoin payments guide lists what providers ask for.
5. Have a second account with a different partner. Two apps on the same issuing partner can fail together. A second account issued by a different institution keeps salaries and suppliers paid.

Questions people ask

Can my company open a business account with Noah? No. Noah sells stablecoin and fiat payment services to platforms through an API and offers a demo, not a sign-up (noah.com, checked 18 October 2026). Businesses use it through a provider built on it.

What licences does Noah have in the EU? Noah LV SIA holds a MiCA crypto-asset service provider licence and a payment institution licence, both granted by Latvijas Banka on 30 September 2026. Noah also holds money transmitter licences in the US and a payment service provider registration in Canada.

What is a MiCA CASP licence? It is the EU licence for crypto-asset service providers under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation. A firm licensed in one EU country can serve clients in the other member states after notifying its regulator.

Is Noah a bank? No. Noah LV SIA is a licensed crypto-asset service provider and payment institution in Latvia. Neither licence allows it to take deposits.

Sources: Latvijas Banka, "Latvijas Banka is issuing two licences to Noah LV SIA", 1 October 2026, and "Latvijas Banka is issuing a licence to Neverless SIA to operate as a payment institution", 1 October 2026; The Paypers, "Noah secures MiCA CASP and PSD2 payment institution licences in the EU", 15 October 2026; noah.com, checked 18 October 2026; provider profiles on Finzil. General information, not financial or legal advice.