FinTech & Payments

The financial sector and technology have become inextricably linked – a combination that brings challenges as well as a lot of opportunities. Startups are entering the market with cutting-edge products, but do they also manage to get enough of a market share? The challenges are different for established financial firms. How can they increase or at least maintain their market share through innovation? Strategic choices need to be made: build things up yourself, enter into partnerships or acquire FinTechs? All these decisions need to be made in a highly regulated environment where rules of financial supervision, IT security and data and privacy partly determine companies’ success.

BarentsKrans’ lawyers go to the extra mile in ensuring the objectives of the client are achieved. They have an eye for detail.

Chambers Fintech (Band 1), 2025

Our expertise

BarentsKrans’ FinTech & Payments team advises clients proactively and pragmatically to become or remain successful while ensuring compliance with the increasingly complex and changing regulations in this field. In this regard, we actively consider what opportunities new regulations present.

BarentsKrans stands out for its unique combination of specialists in financial law, data compliance, IT contracts, and mergers and acquisitions. We work in small, close-knit teams and with a high level of partner involvement.

Our clients range from banks, insurers, payment institutions, electronic money institutions, investment firms, crypto service providers and pension funds to investors (private equity and venture capital) and IT providers with a focus on the financial sector.

Contact

Marc Elshof

Attorney-at-Law Partner

Arno Voerman

Attorney-at-Law Partner

BarentsKrans’ FinTech & Payments team has extensive experience in areas such as:

Financial law: we advise on Dutch financial regulations such as the Financial Supervision Act (Wft), the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Prevention) Act (Wwft) and the Sanctions Act 1977. We also advise on the scope of European directives and regulations, like PSD2 (and PSD3 and PSR), EMD2, AML/CFT rules and MiCAR.
IT and sourcing: drafting and negotiating contracts, monitoring and supporting implementation and transformation projects, and litigating on IT-related matters. We have the technical interest and drive to understand new developments.
Personal data and regulations: we advise on the GDPR and the Dutch implementing rules as well as on new data governance legislation, such as the AI Act, the Data Act, NIS2 and DORA.

On these topics, we also provide advice on national and EU guidelines issued by regulators, including the Dutch Central Bank (DNB), the Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), the European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).

Recent projects

Various license applications (PSD2, EMD2 and MiCAR)
Regulatory due diligence for an investment in a payment institution
Regulatory due diligence and obtaining Declarations of No Objection from DNB for an acquisition of a payment institution
Advising a tech company on its cooperation with a payment scheme
Assistance of an insurance company with its outsourcing project
Advising a financial institution on the revision of its Binding Corporate RulesComplex legal analysis on use of biometrics data and AI, compatibility of the GDPR its national implementation in the Netherlands and viewpoints of national data protection authorities across the EU.
Supporting a renowned IT-supplier on a complex outsourcing deal.
In-depth analysis of the applicability of the new EU Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) to its activities for a large automotive.