Key Data

• Trading Name: OpenPayd
• Legal Entity: OpenPayd Holdings Limited
  OpenPayd Financial Services Malta Limited
• Activities: Banking-as-a-Service platform
• Location: United Kingdom, Malta
• Regulations: FCA-regulated
• Key People: Ekmel Cilingir/Iana Dimitrova/Ozan Ozerk

OpenPayd is the trading style of the FCA-regulated entities SettleGo Solutions Ltd and Ozan Limited, and the MFSA-regulated OpenPayd Financial Services Malta Limited. The fintech entrepreneur Ozan Ozerk founded the company in 2015. He is the beneficial owner of the Akce Group and runs several regulated and unregulated FinTechs in Lithuania, Cyprus, Malta, and the UK. OpenPayd is part of the Akce Group.

Ozerk founded and managed TechToPay Limited (PR42 profile), an FCA-registered he sold in 2019. Over the last couple of years, Ozerk has been managing his FinTech empire together with the Cypriot Ekmel Cilingir and the Bulgarian Iana Dimitrova. The latter is the acting OpenPayd CEO.

OpenPayd is a digital Banking-as-a-Service platform dedicated to improving and simplifying access to payments and banking. Its services can be integrated through a single API and are supported by a network of licensed payment processors across the UK, Europe, the U.S., and others.

Offering

The platform enables businesses such as marketplaces, PSPs, FinTech, and forex brokers to deploy digital banking capabilities to benefit from IBANs in multiple currencies, access local and international payment networks, forex conversion, and card processing capabilities. The services can be integrated seamlessly into businesses’ technology as a white-label offering.

The licensing network of the company is somewhat opaque, so it is not possible to tell exactly which of the subsidiaries owns a license in which regulatory regime.

Compliance Issue

​OpenPayd has been held liable by Malta’s Financial Arbiter for its role in a case where an elderly woman was defrauded of £23,300 (€26,600). The victim was manipulated into investing in cryptocurrency through an account operated via OpenPayd’s virtual IBAN infrastructure. The arbiter criticized OpenPayd for crediting the victim’s funds to a third-party client without her permission and lacking internal systems to ensure clarity in payments involving virtual IBANs. This ruling underscores significant compliance deficiencies and consumer protection concerns within OpenPayd’s operations. The company is appealing the decision.

Customer Review

Trustpilot: 2,6 Satrs with 5 Reviews

Conclusion

OpenPayd’s involvement in this investor fraud case and the regulatory ruling against it highlight serious weaknesses in its compliance and consumer protection measures. While the company is appealing the decision, the lack of safeguards around virtual IBANs raises concerns about its operational integrity. We rate them on Orange.