A Spanish investment firm license is valid across the EU, through the free provision of services or through a branch, after notification via the CNMV. We help you choose the route, handle the process and operate under proper supervision. Note: an EAFN has no passport.
Want to take your investment firm to other EU countries?
Tell us where your clients are and we will propose the expansion route that fits best: free provision of services, a branch or a subsidiary.
The passport starts long before the notification: with the license type you choose and how you describe your activity. These are the building blocks.
Only full investment firms (broker-dealers, securities brokers, portfolio management companies and EAFs) can passport their services. We handle the authorization with your European map already in mind: declared services, target States and timeline.
If your business is advice and you want clients in several countries, the EAF is the lightest license type that carries a passport. We prepare its authorization and the expansion notifications that follow.
Did you start as an EAFN and now need Europe? Changing your license type is the unavoidable price of getting a passport.
If you do not have a license yet, choose the license type with the European map in front of you: the passport is won in the initial design.
Crypto-asset services travel on their own passport, the MiCA one. If your model mixes both worlds, we coordinate the two.
The EAFN is a national license type with no passport: it cannot provide services in other EU Member States through either route.
Four scenarios we often see at the firm, each with a different access route and different obligations.
“Part of my client base has moved to Portugal and France. With the FPS notification through the CNMV, I can keep advising them from Madrid without opening an office or applying for a license there.”
“Our platform works the same in any language. Before translating the website for another market, we passport the service: winning clients in a Member State before notifying is playing with fire.”
“A Belgian family office wanted to hire us, and we discovered that an EAFN cannot operate outside Spain. We are converting into an EAF: it was that or give up the mandate.”
“In Italy, serving clients by video call is not enough: the business needs sales staff on the ground. That is no longer FPS, it is a branch, with local conduct rules and a different level of structure.”
Expanding across Europe is cheap compared with applying for licenses country by country, but only if it is done in the right order. These are the mistakes that cost the most.
Operating before notifying: winning or serving clients in another Member State before completing the notification through the CNMV means providing services without cover in that territory, with supervisory consequences in both the home and the host State.
Choosing the wrong route: setting up a branch when the free provision of services was enough multiplies costs and obligations; forcing FPS when there is a disguised permanent presence exposes the firm to the host authority.
Ignoring the EAFN limit: an EAFN is not an investment firm and has no passport. Serving European clients from that license type is not expansion; it is activity without cover that also taints the future conversion into an EAF.
| Route | What it is | When it makes sense |
|---|---|---|
| Free provision of services (FPS) | You provide services remotely from Spain, with no establishment in the host Member State, after notifying through the CNMV. | Clients served remotely, digital models and client portfolios spread across several countries: maximum speed and minimum entry cost. |
| Branch | A permanent presence without separate legal personality in the host Member State, operating under your Spanish license with local conduct rules. | You need a team or an office on the ground in a specific market, with enough volume to justify a stable structure. |
| Local subsidiary | A new company in the destination country with its own authorization from the local supervisor: it is no longer a passport, it is another license. | Large-scale projects in a single market, requirements from local partners or strategies that call for ring-fencing risks by jurisdiction. |
We define the country map with you, choose between FPS and a branch based on how you actually operate, prepare the notifications through the CNMV and adapt contracts, advertising and policies to each host market. No duplicate licenses and no gray areas.
It is the MiFID II mechanism that allows an investment firm authorized in one Member State to provide its services in any other without having to obtain a new license there.
The Spanish authorization granted by the CNMV is the key to the single market: you only need to complete the notification procedure for the chosen route (free provision of services or branch) to operate in the host Member State.
The free provision of services (FPS) means operating remotely from Spain: no office, no permanent staff and no establishment in the destination country. A branch involves a permanent physical presence (premises, a team) without creating a new company: it is still the same firm operating under your license.
The choice is not entirely yours: if the way you actually operate involves a stable presence in the other State, the correct route is a branch, even if FPS looks more convenient. Getting the classification wrong is one of the classic sources of friction with the host authority.
The procedure goes through the CNMV as the home authority: the investment firm notifies it of its intention to operate in another State, with the content required for the route (the services to be provided and, for a branch, its structure and managers), and the CNMV forwards the notification to the authority of the host Member State within the time limits set by law.
As a general rule, the FPS route is considerably faster than the branch route, whose procedure includes a more thorough review before the branch can open. In both cases, activity can only begin once the relevant procedure has been completed.
The general principle of MiFID II is home State control: the CNMV remains your main supervisor for authorization, solvency and organization.
However, when you operate through a branch, the authority of the host Member State generally takes over supervision of the conduct of business rules for the activity carried out from that branch: client information, assessments, advertising. Under FPS, the bulk of supervision stays with the home State, although the host authority keeps powers to act against irregular conduct in its territory.
No. The EAFN is a license type created by Law 6/2023 that does not have investment firm status: it can only operate in Spain and has no access to either FPS or a branch.
If you are an EAFN and your business needs European clients, the way forward is conversion into an EAF, which does enjoy the passport as a full investment firm. It is a decision best made early: the process takes time, and the foreign client does not always wait.
This is the territory of so-called reverse solicitation: a client, on their own exclusive initiative, requests a service from a firm in another State. Read strictly, that client initiative may fall outside the notification regime.
But it is an exception that is interpreted narrowly: any prior solicitation (a website aimed at the country, advertising, sales contact) rules it out. Using it as a disguised expansion strategy is, quite simply, operating without a passport. If you have recurring clients from the same State, notify.
Not directly. Crypto-asset services are governed by MiCA, which sets up its own passport for authorized CASPs. Investment firms can provide crypto services equivalent to those covered by their MiFID license by notifying their supervisor, but the cross-border side of that activity follows the MiCA channel, not the MiFID one.
If your model combines financial instruments and crypto-assets, both regimes need to be coordinated. We cover this in MiCA passport in the EU.
A subsidiary is a new company with its own authorization from the local supervisor: you lose the agility of the passport but gain a fully local entity. It is usually considered when a single market concentrates a very high volume of business, when local partners require their own vehicle, or when it makes sense to ring-fence risks by jurisdiction.
For most Spanish investment firms that are expanding, the sensible sequence is FPS first, a branch if the market calls for presence, and a subsidiary only with a very strong business case. We help you model it from the investment firm authorization stage.
Passporting is not sending a form: it means aligning strategy, notification and operations in each market. This is how we structure the process with our clients.
We identify the target States, the expected volume and how clients will be served. That tells us the right route for each country: FPS, a branch or, exceptionally, a subsidiary.
We prepare the content of the notification for the route (services and, for a branch, also structure and managers), file it with the CNMV and follow its transmission to the host authority until you can operate.
We adapt contracts, pre-contractual information and advertising to the destination market, and align compliance with the conduct rules supervised by the host authority.
Don’t have the base license yet? Start by setting up an EAF or with the investment firm authorization from the CNMV.
The 10 steps to set up your Financial Advisory Firm (EAF) with the CNMV, with the evidence you must be able to show at each one. Keep it at hand throughout the project.
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The terms that will appear in your notifications, in your correspondence with the CNMV and in your dealings with host authorities.
The right of investment firms authorized in one Member State to provide services throughout the EU without a new license, after prior notification.
Remote operations from Spain for clients in another State, with no establishment in the destination. The fast, light route.
A permanent establishment in the host Member State without separate legal personality: it is still your firm and your license.
A new entity incorporated in the destination country with its own authorization from its supervisor. It is no longer a passport.
The State that authorized the investment firm. Its supervisor (the CNMV) keeps primary control: solvency, organization, fit and proper requirements.
The State where you provide passported services. For a branch, its authority supervises the conduct rules for the local activity.
National financial advisory firm: it is not an investment firm, operates only in Spain and cannot use FPS or open branches in the EU.
A service requested on the exclusive initiative of the foreign client. An exception that is interpreted narrowly: any solicitation rules it out.
Crypto-asset services travel through the MiCA regime and its own passport for CASPs, not through the MiFID one.
An honest classification of how you operate: FPS only if there is truly no stable presence in the host Member State.
A documented analysis per country: how clients are acquired, where the team and the service are located, expected volume.
Complete content, consistent with the program of operations: passported services within the authorized scope.
Notification file submitted to the CNMV and acknowledgment of its transmission to the host authority.
No solicitation or contracting in the host State before the procedure for the chosen route is complete.
Launch timeline per country, campaign control and a log of client onboarding with date and State.
Client information, contracts and advertising adapted to the host market and to the rules its authority supervises.
Document sets per country, controlled language versions and compliance sign-off before each campaign.
Ongoing consistency between what was notified and reality: services, countries and actual presence kept up to date.
Periodic review of the cross-border activity map, and change notifications whenever something changes.
Any of these practices can put you outside the passport regime without anyone having formally decided it.
Who can passport, and at what cost, depends on decisions made long before the first notification: the license type chosen, the authorized scope and the firm’s compliance capacity. These pages help you prepare a European expansion that will not have to be undone.
If Europe is in your plan, choose a license type with a passport from day one: getting the initial design right avoids costly conversions.
The EAFN’s only path to the passport: what is filed, what changes in capital and which obligations are added.
Passporting adds new fronts; it does not replace the existing ones: reporting and ongoing compliance with the CNMV remain unchanged.
If your expansion includes crypto-asset services, that business travels through the MiCA passport: learn its rules.
Where to start? If you are already an investment firm, review your program of operations before notifying. If you are not one yet, start with the investment firm authorization or the EAF authorization.
Tell us which European markets you want to reach and we will map out the way: access route, notifications and adapting your operations.
The single market for investment services rests on a simple idea: an authorization granted by one Member State is valid in all the others. Thanks to the MiFID II EU passport, a Spanish investment firm (broker-dealer, securities broker, portfolio management company or EAF) can provide its services in any EU country without applying for a second license: the relevant notification, sent through the CNMV as home authority, is enough. The trade-off is a split of supervision between the home and the host State that is worth understanding before you win your first foreign client.
The free provision of services (FPS) lets you serve clients in another Member State from Spain, with no establishment in the destination. It is the natural route for digital models and for client portfolios spread across countries: the investment firm tells the CNMV the States where it will operate and the services it will provide, the CNMV forwards the notification to each host authority within the statutory time limits, and activity can begin once the procedure is complete. As a general rule it is a fast channel, but it has a basic condition: the activity must genuinely be remote. A disguised stable presence (a permanent sales team, a de facto office) goes beyond FPS and requires a branch.
A branch is an establishment without separate legal personality in the host Member State: the firm is still the Spanish one, and the license is still the one granted by the CNMV. Its notification is more demanding (structure, address, managers) and its procedure is generally longer than for FPS. The important change comes in supervision: the host authority takes over supervision of the conduct of business rules for the activity carried out from the branch, so local client information, assessments and advertising must be built with that supervisor in mind. Organization, solvency and fit and proper requirements remain answerable to the CNMV.
Law 6/2023 created the EAFN as a purely national advisory license type: it is not an investment firm and therefore has no EU passport under either route. For an EAFN with clients or opportunities outside Spain, the only path is conversion into an EAF, which does have access to the passport as a full investment firm. It is a decision best made early: the conversion process takes time, and in the meantime cross-border activity is off-limits. When you design a new project, the dilemma is settled earlier: if Europe appears in the medium-term plan, it pays to consider the EAF from the outset, as we explain in how to set up an EAF.
The MiFID passport covers investment services in financial instruments; crypto-asset services run through the MiCA regime and its own passport for CASPs, so mixed models must coordinate both channels (we cover this in MiCA passport). And in every case, the passport requires maintenance: what was notified must keep reflecting reality (services, countries, presence), campaigns cannot get ahead of notifications, and the reverse solicitation exception cannot carry the weight of a sales strategy. A defensible expansion is one that can be reconstructed with evidence: what was notified, when, and what was done afterwards in each market.
Key legislation, linked to the official text:
Legislation and links reviewed in .