Why Your BaaS Associate Selection Can Kill Your Enterprise 

Throughout Europe, crypto and fintech corporations are being reminded of a tough reality: your Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) or card issuer companion is a single level of failure. 

Latest regulatory actions involving Quicko (Poland) and UAB Monavate (Lithuania) present how rapidly that failure can materialise — and the way devastating the impression might be for fintechs that depend on card issuance and banking infrastructure. 

That is now not an edge case. It’s a structural threat each builder wants to grasp. 

In early 2026, Quicko, a Poland-based card issuer that had turn out to be common amongst crypto card programmes, misplaced its skill to supply fee companies following a licence revocation. 

Quicko’s personal assertion says that as of February 3, 2026, it misplaced the flexibility to supply fee companies attributable to a choice of Poland’s Monetary Supervision Authority (KNF) dated January 21, 2026.  Quicko assertion: https://www.quicko.pl/ 

The implications have been quick: 

• Dozens of companion fintechs misplaced card and banking performance 

• 1000’s of finish customers have been affected 

• Companies stopped “in a single day,” with no significant transition window 

For the fintechs constructed on prime of Quicko, the lack of the issuer was not a setback — it was an operational shutdown. 

Solely weeks earlier than the Quicko resolution, the Lithuanian central financial institution (Lietuvos bankas) issued a binding instruction to UAB Monavate, a Lithuania-based digital cash establishment that had additionally turn out to be extensively utilized by crypto-related card programmes. 

Monavate was ordered to cease offering monetary companies to 6 companions: 

Once more, the impression on companion fintechs was quick and disruptive. 

These instances should not remoted incidents. They mirror a broader regulatory tightening throughout the European Union, notably round: 

• Digital cash establishments (EMIs) 

• Card issuers serving crypto-adjacent companies 

• Cross-border embedded finance fashions 

Regulators are more and more centered on ongoing compliance, not simply preliminary authorisation. Issuers that expanded rapidly by onboarding giant numbers of programmes — typically with minimal scrutiny — are being required to reveal sustained threat administration, governance, and operational management. 

For some issuers, that scrutiny is exposing weaknesses that result in enforcement motion or lack of licence. 

If you happen to’re constructing a fintech product that depends on: 

• Card issuance 

• Embedded banking 

• Account infrastructure 

…your issuer selection shouldn’t be a procurement resolution. It’s an existential one. 

When an issuer loses its licence or is pressured to halt companies: 

• Playing cards cease working instantly 

• Accounts could also be frozen or restricted 

• Buyer belief collapses 

• Migration to a brand new issuer can take months 

Most fintechs can not swap BaaS companions rapidly, even when they’ve funding, authorized assist, and a alternative lined up. 

Issuers most susceptible to regulatory motion typically share frequent traits: 

• Heavy publicity to crypto or high-risk programmes 

• Quantity-driven onboarding fashions 

• Restricted ongoing companion monitoring 

• Beneath-resourced compliance and threat groups 

In contrast, extra resilient issuers sometimes reveal: 

• Conservative companion choice 

• Clear regulatory alignment 

• Clear engagement with supervisors 

• A compliance tradition embedded into day by day operations 

Within the present surroundings, an issuer that claims “no” extra typically is normally a safer long-term companion. 

I’m not penning this as a impartial observer. 

I’m penning this as somebody who’s been constructing on this area since 2014.  

Wirex is extensively credited with launching one of many world’s first crypto-enabled fee playing cards in 2015 — a foundational second for the “crypto card” class. We’ve issued playing cards at scale and operated by way of a number of market cycles and main regulatory shifts. 

We didn’t survive by slicing corners. We survived by treating compliance and threat administration as product infrastructure, not an afterthought. 

And sure — I’m genuinely proud that Wirex has been recognised for that work, together with: 

• Greatest Digital Banking Platform on the 2025 FinTech Breakthrough Awards  

• Winner on the ICA Compliance Awards Europe

• 2025 (Compliance Tradition class)  

These awards matter as a result of they mirror what the issuer disaster is absolutely about: operational maturity. 

Our Stablecoin BaaS platform is designed for builders who perceive that infrastructure reliability issues as a lot as characteristic units.

Constructed on compliance infrastructure that does not disappear when regulators come knocking.

The lesson from Quicko and Monavate shouldn’t be “keep away from crypto.” It’s perceive dependency threat. 

Founders and product leaders ought to deal with issuer choice as a governance-level resolution, assessing: 

• Regulatory observe file and jurisdiction 

• Focus threat throughout companions 

• Depth of compliance infrastructure 

• Contingency planning and exit eventualities 

Velocity to market issues — however resilience issues extra. 

The crypto card issuer disaster shouldn’t be a brief disruption. It’s a structural correction in embedded finance. 

As EU regulators elevate expectations, fintechs constructed on fragile BaaS foundations will proceed to face sudden, extreme disruptions. People who select resilient, conservative companions — and plan for issuer threat early — are way more prone to survive the following regulatory wave. 

In embedded finance, your issuer’s licence is your licence.