United Kingdom · Payments & e-money
Optal Financial Limited
Optal Financial Limited is a private limited company incorporated in England and Wales. The FCA authorises it as an electronic money institution under firm reference number 900112. It is wholly owned by Optal Limited, and its ultimate parent is WEX Inc., which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. WEX acquired the Optal business on 15 December 2020. The firm issues virtual payment cards to business customers, mainly in the travel industry. It has an agreement to be the sole issuer of virtual cards to eNett International (Singapore) Pte Ltd, a fellow WEX company.
Licences and registrations
Held by Optal Financial Limited (LEI 254900AVW6GDL38NUI64). 1 entry on 1 of the 22 tracked registers, retrieved 25 September 2026.
| Register | Licence | Number | Jurisdiction | Status | Registered | Ends | Activities | Register entry |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FCA Financial Services Register - E-Money InstitutionsFCA | Authorised E-Money InstitutionE-Money / Stored Value Institution | 900112 | United Kingdom | Active | 2018-03-07 | — |
|
Search the register ↗ |
- Each licence applies in the country of the regulator that granted it.
- Registers are tracked in 37 countries. Licences granted elsewhere are not recorded here.
Swift network
Swift’s ISO 9362 BIC directory
Holds no BIC in Swift’s directory.
Its LEI is not mapped to a BIC in the Swift and GLEIF BIC-to-LEI relationship file.
Overview
Researched 29 Sep 2026 · Sources
Customers
Not published
Ownership
Group subsidiary
100% Optal Limited
Firm type
Other
Trades as WEX
- Ownership
- Optal Limited (Companies House 05531282) owns 100% of the firm, and WEX Inc. is the ultimate controlling parent through WEX Australia Newco 2020 Pty Ltd.
- Direct parent
- Optal Limited, United Kingdom 100%
- Ultimate owner
- WEX Inc., United States
- Head office
- 4th Floor, East Building, 1 London Bridge, SE1 9BG London, United Kingdom (registered office: Eastcastle House, 27/28 Eastcastle Street, London, W1W 8DH, United Kingdom)
- Company register
- Companies House 08364883
- Incorporated
- 17 Jan 2013
- Former name
- Accomplish Financial Limited
Online
- Websites & references
- wexinc.com ↗
wexinc.com/en-gb ↗ WEX UK country site - Official social accounts
- LinkedIn ↗ · X ↗ · Facebook ↗ · Instagram ↗ · YouTube ↗
Sources · 11 pages consulted
- find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08364883
- find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08364883/officers
- find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08364883/persons-with-significant-control
- find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08364883/filing-history
- find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08364883/filing-history/MzQ3OTk2MjM3NmFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=pdf&download=0
- wexinc.com/regulatory-information/wex-group-regulated-entities/
- wexinc.com/regulatory-information/optal-modern-slavery-statement-2021/
- wexinc.com/en-gb/
- wexinc.com/en-gb/business-payments/virtual-cards/
- linkedin.com/company/optal
- centralbank.ie/news/article/optal-financial-europe-(clone)---central-bank-of-ireland-issues-warning-on-u
Authorisation
Researched 29 Sep 2026 · Sources
- Operates under
- Its own licences
The FCA authorises the firm as an electronic money institution under firm reference number 900112. WEX's Irish sister company, Optal Financial Europe Limited, holds a separate Central Bank of Ireland e-money licence.
| Authority | Licence or registration | Number | Held | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Financial Conduct Authority United Kingdom | Authorised Electronic Money Institution | 900112 | In its own name | Active | register.fca.org.uk ↗ |
Licences and registrations the research found, at home and abroad, as the firm and its regulators publish them. The Licences and registrations card shows the entries on the registers the directory tracks.
Partners and safeguarding
Researched 29 Sep 2026 · Sources
- Safeguarding
- Segregated safeguarding accountsAccording to its 2024 accounts, the firm holds client funds in client money accounts and escrow accounts, which it cannot use for its own purposes.
- Payment schemes and card networks
- Mastercard Direct linkedin.com ↗
Banks and regulated firms the firm says hold its customers’ money, issue its cards, sponsor its accounts or settle its payments, as it discloses them in its terms and notices.
Products and markets
Researched 29 Sep 2026 · Sources
It issues single-use virtual cards for business-to-business payments, mainly to travel businesses. Some cards are pre-funded by the customer and others are funded by a credit line from the firm.
The firm operates from the United Kingdom under its FCA authorisation and describes its customers as businesses around the world.
- Revenue
- GBP 70.2m
- Payment volume
- EUR 3.13bnGross transactional volume
- Sells to
- Enterprises · Other
- Serves customers in
- United Kingdom
Leadership
Researched 29 Sep 2026 · Sources
- Executive
- Darragh Deady Director
- Executive
- Ann Elena Drew Director
- Executive
- Jason Anthony Hancock Director
- Executive
- Sara Terese Wickware Trickett Director
Recent events
Researched 29 Sep 2026 · Sources
-
Leadership
Steven Stuart Paddock stepped down as a director on 10 April 2026.
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk ↗ -
Leadership
The firm appointed Jason Hancock, Sara Trickett and Steven Paddock as directors. Hilary Rapkin, Carlos Carriedo and Michael Werry resigned.
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk ↗ -
Other
The firm changed its functional currency from EUR to GBP following the integration of Optal into WEX.
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk ↗ -
Other
The boards approved the formal integration of Optal into WEX, with new supply-chain flows effective from 1 January 2023.
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk ↗
Compliance-relevant events of the last three years, newest first: fines and enforcement, investigations, security incidents, licence changes, funding rounds, acquisitions and leadership changes. Each links to its source.
Identifiers
- Licence no. · FCA-EMI
- 900112
- BIC
- Holds no BIC in Swift’s directory
- How the LEI was matched
- Matched by Elucidate on the UK company number the register gives
- Elucidate firm ID
- fd4e29882f25
Profile
- Type
- Payments & e-moneyPayment institutions, e-money and stored-value issuers, and account-information providers. Licensed under payment-services law (e.g. PSD2 in the EU and UK, the Payment Services Act in Singapore). Taken from the licences on the tracked registers.
- Regulation
- Prudential licenceAuthorised with capital, safeguarding and conduct requirements, e.g. an authorised payment or e-money institution in the EU or UK, a major payment institution in Singapore, or a MiCA crypto-asset service provider.
- Main licence class
- E-Money / Stored Value Institution
- Activities
- Payment services
- E-money / stored value
- Licensed in
- United Kingdom · Europe & Central Asia
- First registered
- 2018-03-07
- Website
- www.wexinc.com ↗
Types come from Swift’s BIC classification, the licences on the 22 tracked registers, and the ECB and FSB bank lists. Most banks outside the euro area appear as financial institutions, because their supervisors’ registers are not tracked yet.
Ownership and group
GLEIF relationship records
- Ultimate parent
- Wex Inc. · United StatesT9M5IGROL1TL1G5OV478 ↗
The Wex Inc. group has 2 institutions in the directory, in 2 countries: none holds a BIC.
Including Optal Financial Europe Limited.
See the Wex Inc. group →Group membership follows the accounting-consolidation relationships reported to GLEIF. It does not show ownership shares or control.
Addresses
- Address on the register
- 1 London Bridge, London, SE1 9BG
- Country
- United Kingdom
ISO 20022 identification
As an agent in a Swift cross-border payment message (CBPR+)
This institution holds no BIC. A CBPR+ message identifies it by name and postal address, and may add its LEI or a clearing code.
- Identified by
- Name and postal address, with its LEI
- Postal address
- Hybrid: town, postcode and country in their own elements, the rest in one address line
<FinInstnId>
<LEI>254900AVW6GDL38NUI64</LEI>
<Nm>Optal Financial Limited</Nm>
<PstlAdr>
<PstCd>SE1 9BG</PstCd>
<TwnNm>London</TwnNm>
<Ctry>GB</Ctry>
<AdrLine>1 London Bridge</AdrLine>
</PstlAdr>
</FinInstnId>- The address line repeats the town or postcode. Remove the repeat if your payment system rejects it.
CBPR+ identifies the instructing and instructed agents by BIC only. An institution without a BIC can be the debtor, creditor or an intermediary agent.
The values are as published by the register. Check them against your own records before use.
Sources & method
Register entries come from the public registers of financial regulators, standardised into one taxonomy. LEIs are matched through GLEIF, and a BIC is linked only through a shared LEI.
An institution missing from these registers is not necessarily unregulated.
Register entries are not matched against the OFAC or EU sanctions lists. Where the legal entity also holds a BIC, the matches for that BIC are on its page. Always screen against the official lists.
An institution is one entry in the directory: a BIC8 in Swift’s directory, or a firm on a tracked register that holds no BIC. Licences held by an institution with a BIC are shown on its page.
Read the methodology →Register for this page
- FCA Financial Services Register - E-Money Institutions—Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) · source ↗ as at 25 September 2026
- Ownership and group—GLEIF Level 2 relationship records (accounting consolidation), matched by LEI.
- Overview, authorisation, partners, products, leadership and events—researched per institution by an AI model with web search, from the firm's own website, terms and filings, regulators' registers and notices, company registers and news. Licences, partners, figures, people and events link to their source, and each card shows the research date. AI research can be wrong or out of date, so check key facts at the source.
Assess the financial crime risk behind a licence
A licence records what an institution is authorised to do; it does not assess it. The Elucidate FinCrime Index (EFI) is an independent score of the financial crime risk of banks and payment institutions.
Book a demo