Payment Processing for Cyprus-Registered Companies

• Currency: euro (EUR), used since 1 January 2008. Settlement runs over SEPA.
• Most used payment method: cards, at about 75% of all non-cash transactions in Cyprus, the highest share in the euro area.
• Key regulators: the Central Bank of Cyprus for banks, payment institutions and e-money institutions; CySEC for investment firms and crypto-asset service providers; the National Betting Authority for betting.
• Crypto: the MiCA transitional period in Cyprus ended on 1 July 2026, so crypto-asset services now need MiCA authorisation.
• Gambling: only betting can be licensed. Online casino games are prohibited.

Cards dominate. In the first half of 2025, payment cards accounted for 75% of all non-cash transactions in Cyprus, according to the Central Bank of Cyprus, and the number of cards in circulation reached two million, up 7% on a year earlier. The average online payment with a Cypriot card was €125, one of the highest in the euro area, against about €37 in shops.

Bank transfers run over SEPA. Since 9 October 2025, banks in the euro area must be able to send SEPA Instant payments and check that the payee name matches the account (verification of payee), which makes instant account-to-account payments more practical for larger amounts.

• Strong customer authentication applies to online card payments across the EU. The deadline for e-commerce card payments was 31 December 2020, so expect 3D Secure on most transactions, with exemptions for low-value, low-risk and merchant-initiated payments.
• No surcharging on consumer cards: under the EU Payment Services Directive, a merchant may not charge extra for payment by consumer debit or credit cards whose interchange is capped.
• Interchange on consumer cards is capped at 0.2% for debit and 0.3% for credit under the EU Interchange Fee Regulation.
• GDPR applies to customer and payment data, as in the rest of the EU.

• Registration with the Department of the Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property: certificate of incorporation, directors, secretary and shareholders.
• Beneficial owners in the Registrar's register of beneficial owners, which opened for filings on 16 March 2021. Public access was suspended on 23 November 2022, but providers, as obliged entities, can still request the data for due diligence.
• Real substance: an office, staff or directors who actually run the business, and evidence that the company operates as described, not only a registered address.
• Whether the activity needs a licence from the Central Bank of Cyprus, CySEC or the National Betting Authority, and a copy of that licence.
• A euro settlement account in the company's name that is reachable over SEPA.

Cyprus is one of the EU's main hubs for online brokers. CySEC supervised 834 entities at the end of 2024, among them many Cyprus Investment Firms offering forex and CFDs to retail clients across the EEA. For retail CFDs, CySEC applies leverage limits from 30:1 on major currency pairs down to 2:1 on crypto, a 50% margin close-out rule and negative balance protection. Providers ask for the CySEC licence, the client countries and how deposits and withdrawals are handled.

Payment institutions and e-money institutions are licensed by the Central Bank of Cyprus, which changed its licensing process from 3 August 2026 and revoked two e-money licences in 2025. Check the Central Bank's registers before relying on any Cyprus payment or e-money firm.

For crypto, CySEC set 27 February 2026 as the last date to apply for MiCA authorisation, and firms registered under the old national rules could continue only until 1 July 2026. Firms that missed the deadline had to submit a wind-down plan. A crypto business now needs to show MiCA authorisation, not an old national registration.

Online gambling in Cyprus is limited to betting. Under the Betting Law 37(I)/2019, the National Betting Authority licenses sports betting, and licensed online betting sites use addresses ending in .com.cy. Online casino games are prohibited: the Authority said in August 2025 that operating online casinos is strictly prohibited, and it publishes a blocking list of illegal gambling websites. Players face fines of up to €50,000 and illegal operators up to €300,000.

For payments, this means online casino payments from Cypriot players are not a licensable activity, and a betting operator needs a National Betting Authority licence before a provider will process Cypriot bets. A Cyprus-registered company serving other markets is assessed on the licence for each market it serves.

A Cyprus company is an EEA merchant. When it sells to customers with EEA consumer cards through an EEA acquirer, the interchange caps of 0.2% for debit and 0.3% for credit apply, and settlement in euro over SEPA needs no currency conversion. This is a real cost advantage over non-EEA companies selling into Europe, but the processing route still depends on the activity, the target countries and any licence those countries require.

Acquipayer is not a payment provider. You add your company, industry, markets and volumes once, and your profile is matched with a payment provider that accepts your business type, including regulated forex, crypto and betting businesses. Your account is then prepared with that provider so you can start taking payments.

• Central Bank of Cyprus, payment statistics for the first half of 2025, as reported by Politis and Cyprus Mail.
• European Central Bank, Instant Payments Regulation deadlines, and the euro changeover in Cyprus (2008).
• Directive (EU) 2015/2366 (PSD2), Article 62(4), and Regulation (EU) 2015/751 on interchange fees.
• European Banking Authority, opinion on the deadline for migration to strong customer authentication (2019).
• CySEC, MiCA transitional regime and Circular C674; CySEC policy statement PS-04-2019 on CFDs.
• National Betting Authority, Betting Law 37(I)/2019 and public warning of 8 August 2025.
• Department of the Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property, register of beneficial owners.