How we shortened the licensing process by 43 days
Waiting for a regulatory decision is not a business strategy, but a costly standstill. Every day of delay in obtaining a license cost our client from the BNPL industry an average of 4,280 PLN in lost margin. At Suprasorte Strategic Lobby, we do not promise miracles, but we know the corridors of the Parliament and we know how to strike a bureaucratic logjam point-by-point.
Diagnosis of the bottleneck from October 2023
In mid-October 2023, a technology company employing 34 developers contacted us, which had not received any substantive response from the office for 67 days. Their application for the extension of a small payment institution license was 148 pages long but contained errors that official algorithms could not process. Instead of dialogue, the client received only dry calls to supplement deficiencies, which extended the process indefinitely. The first step of the Suprasorte team was to analyze each of the 12 rounds of questions asked by the regulator during the previous quarter.
The analysis showed that the problem was not the client's technology, but the way security procedures were described. Officials did not understand the specifics of the BNPL model based on behavioral scoring, and the client tried to explain it in startup language, which rarely brings results in Warsaw. As of November 14, 2023, we identified 112 inconsistencies in the documentation, which were a warning signal for the office. We had to immediately change the narrative and adapt it to the rigid framework of the Payment Services Act, while maintaining the business logic of fintech.
Officials did not understand the specifics of the BNPL model, and the client tried to explain it in startup language. This was a classic communication error.
Targeted actions at Plac Powstańców
Instead of sending more bulky volumes of explanations, we focused on direct communication and precise technical meetings. At Suprasorte Strategic Lobby, we believe that facts matter, not promises. In just 9 business days, we redrafted key chapters of the risk management policy. We focused on Article 64 of the aforementioned Act, showing in black and white how the client's systems protect users' funds. This was not a cosmetic change, but a deep remodeling of the description of money flows, which had been a black box for the controllers until then.
Together with the company's management, we prepared a system failure simulation, which we presented during a working panel on November 28. This meeting lasted exactly 2 hours and 14 minutes, but it settled more than three months of email exchange. We showed the regulator that the fintech not only wants to act quickly, but above all safely. Our role was to act as a translator between the world of modern financial technologies and the world of traditional banking regulations. It was then that the process moved forward, and the delay counter stopped at a level that allowed saving January as the launch date for the new service.
43 days of savings and specific profits
The final decision to grant the license was made on December 19, 2023, at 11:42 AM. Thanks to our intervention, the process, which according to standard forecasts was to last until February 2024, ended 43 days earlier. For the client, this meant a saving of 184,040 PLN in operating costs and the possibility of closing the investment round for 2.1 million EUR on time. Without this acceleration, London investors would likely have withdrawn from negotiations, which would have put the company's future in doubt.
This case shows that in relations with the regulator, the winner is not the one who writes the most, but the one who understands the office's intentions. We act quickly and precisely because we know that in the fintech sector, time is the most expensive resource. Since September 2016, when we founded Suprasorte in Warsaw, we have served 423 clients and each of these cases has taught us that the devil is in the details of documentation. If your application lies in the office for more than 30 days without substantive movement, it is a signal that you need the support of someone who knows these corridors inside out.
Shortening the process by 43 days allowed the client to save an investment round of 2.1 million EUR. Facts mattered.
Conclusions for the fintech industry
The lesson from this case study is simple: you should not treat the regulator as an enemy, but as a partner who requires a specific communication language. Many companies make the mistake of hiring generalist lawyers who write contracts well but do not feel the rhythm of the work of supervisory committees. At Suprasorte Strategic Lobby, we combine legal knowledge with hard business analytics. Fintech is our specialty, so we don't waste time learning the industry – we co-create it through active participation in public consultations on new draft acts.
If you plan to expand or introduce a new payment product in 2025, start with an audit of your regulatory readiness. Our data shows that 87% of delays result from incorrect naming of internal processes, rather than actual security gaps. Our team, currently numbering 14 specialists, is ready to analyze your situation within 48 hours of the first contact. We don't promise that it will always be easy, but we guarantee that our work will be based on specific metrics and real experience from Warsaw offices.
