Guides · Playbooks for regulated builders
Choose a guide for the decision in front of the business: a licence application, an AI deployment, a payment service or a corporate structure.
The FCA's crypto authorisation gateway opened on 30 September 2026 and closes on 28 February 2027, ahead of the mandatory regime on 25 October 2027. No automatic conversion for MLR-registered firms. Perimeter mapping, gap analysis and application build, before the window closes.
Token classification drives everything, so that’s where this guide starts. ~12 min for crypto & digital-asset firms.
The walkthrough most teams skip: classifying your systems before the 2027 and 2028 high-risk deadlines. ~12 min for AI builders & deployers.
Your lawful basis for using personal data in training and inference, and how you handle automated decisions: where most AI products are exposed.
The risk-management framework, human-oversight policy, transparency notices, and model documentation customers and regulators will actually accept.
How to tell whether you need a licence, which one, and in which jurisdiction. ~11 min for payments & fintech teams.
The financial-crime controls regulators check first, and the ones that, done late or thinly, slow or sink a licence application.
“Where should we incorporate?” rarely has a single right answer. A framework for making the call deliberately, not by default.
Where AI, fintech, and crypto messaging crosses regulatory lines, and how to set up your team so it doesn’t.
Not sure which path is yours?
Tell us what the business does, where its customers are and which decision needs legal review. We will respond with the next steps for scoping the work.