What are the requirements to obtain an MSB License in the US if I have a company abroad?

First the MSB license is the Money Services Business License is also known as the money transmitter license outside of the US, here in the US basically the MSB license is needed when one person is going to transfer money to another person, third party. Same thing as PayPal, as Western Union. The requirement for someone who is not US citizen or someone who is they are the same, they don’t change. But the basic requirement is that the company shows in addition to the application, shows a money laundering policy, this is a book that the company should show to provides with the application in addition of a business plan explaining how the company is going to operate and this needs to be attached to the application in the state. Here in the US, there is no 1 license application for money service business license, you must apply state by state just like PayPal has 48 MSB licenses in the US. So it all depends where you plan to operate and where your clients will be in addition to all this requirements you also need to submit fingerprints, so someone who is not in the US will need to come to the US and have their fingerprints taken and submitted to the financial division of the state and the state will provide you a code for those fingerprints to be submitted directly to the database of the state. Also, you need at least, it depends on the states because some require thousands of dollars in capital and some states require less, some states like new jersey or New York they are in the 5k to a 1 million dollar in capital. For non us and us citizens they need to have an office with an LLC or corporation already opened. Also, you rent an office, hire one employee, you have a telephone number, a fax number, an email address, and a website.

That is required to start the application, provide a business plan, anti-money laundering policy, fingerprints, identification like passport or driver’s license, if you’re not a us citizen you have to have one employee based in the US who is to be the contact on the application, to act as the shareholder of the company, once you have all this you deposit in the bank the capital and you need a CPA to audit that money, he will issue a report and that will mean that money is there and this report is attached to the MSB license application. If you have a company that has been doing business already you need to audit the financial statements by a CPA and attach that report to the MSB license application, once you have all this documentation you can submit the application to the finance commission of the state and then it will take at least 90 days for the application in addition to that some state require that you also post a bond which is like a guarantee that you give that you are able to provide the initial capital that is required that can go from 50 thousand to 1 million dollar.

When you have all this, you can submit the application, some states like Georgia and Tennessee have created like a joint application where you apply to one state and that application also works for other states and it can be done online. However, states like Florida don’t allow online application and has to be in paper and submitted some parts online. One final requirement is that you must appoint a compliance officer means that that person oversees enforcing the anti-money laundering and all the policies and procedures of the company which you also need to have to start the application. If the employee has experience in compliance and banking then that employee can work as the compliance offer otherwise you have to find one person who can do that, and that is a US Citizen.