Platform · Technology

The infrastructure behind
every transfer.

How HansePay moves money in minutes at a fraction of the cost. The technology is hidden by design, but here is what runs underneath when you need to know.

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What it is

The euro, on different rails.

An E-Money Token is a regulated digital version of the euro, issued by a licensed financial institution. One token equals one euro, always. It exists so money can settle the way information already does, instantly, programmatically, across borders.

1 EMT = 1 EUR

Always 1:1. Fixed by law under MiCAR. Not a market price.

Backed 1:1
Held in segregated reserves at regulated banks. Not on the issuer's balance sheet, your funds are always fully covered.
Issued under MiCAR
The EU's strictest digital money framework. HansePay operates fully within it, licensed, audited, supervised.
Redeemable on demand
Convert back to fiat at any time. 1:1, no fees, no waiting. The value is pegged to the euro, not a market price.
How it works

Six hops versus one.

Every bank in the correspondent chain adds a fee, a spread, and a day of delay. EMT settlement collapses the entire chain into a single atomic step.

Today, with a bank
Sender bank
Wire initiated
Correspondent 1
+0.20% +€25
Correspondent 2
+0.20% +1 day
SWIFT network
Routing layer
Correspondent 3
+€30 +1–2 days
Recipient bank
Funds credited, eventually
3–5 business days  ·  €60–€180 fees  ·  ~1.2% spread
With HansePay
Sender bank
Rate locked instantly
EMT settlement
Atomic conversion
Recipient bank
Credited same session
Minutes  ·  0.20%–0.75% all-in  ·  Rate locked at quote
Familiar territory

You already use e-money without knowing it.

Every PayPal balance you hold is e-money, regulated under the same EU framework as a HansePay EMT, held under the same custody rules. HansePay operates in the same legal category. The difference is what we built on top: real-time cross-border settlement from 0.20%.

Same regulatory category as PayPal. Different economics.

Where e-money sits

Traditional
Bargeld
Cash
Coins & notes
Traditional
Giralgeld
Book money
Bank account
E-money
E-Geld
Electronic money
PayPal · HansePay

E-money is fixed in value (1:1 to EUR), issued by a licensed institution, and regulated under EU law.

The cost stack

1.2% versus 0.20%–0.75%. Here is where the difference goes.

Every fee in cross-border banking maps to infrastructure built around the system's own latency. Remove the latency, and most of those layers disappear.

HansePay is up to 8× cheaper, structurally

Indicative breakdown for a small to mid cross-border wire. Actual bank costs vary by corridor, volume, and relationship.

1.20%
Bank wire
0.20%
HansePay
Bank wire breakdown
FX spread0.55%
Correspondent fees0.30%
Settlement risk0.20%
SWIFT fees0.10%
Lift fee0.05%
HansePay breakdown
FX spread0.13%
Network fee0.02%

Chart not to scale. At true scale the bank bar would be 8× taller.

Locked rates

The rate you see is the rate you get.

When you confirm a transfer at HansePay, the rate is locked at that exact moment, atomically. The value that leaves your account is the value that arrives at the recipient bank. No execution gap. No slippage.

Traditional bank
Rate quoted
1.0850
3 days later
Rate executed
1.0843
−7 pips slippage
On a €100,000 transfer, 7 pips = €70 lost to execution gap.
HansePay
Rate quoted
1.0850
Instantly
Rate executed
1.0850
✓ Locked atomically
Same rate at quote, execution, and settlement. Zero slippage by design.
Why it matters

What changes when settlement and payment become one thing.

Settlement in minutes
Your supplier gets paid the same day. Reconciliation lands in your accounting system before your AP team has finished their coffee.
Same-day reconciliation
Final settlement in minutes means the confirmation hits your accounting system the same day, not the same week. AP work compresses from days to hours.
FX locked before execution
Deterministic pricing. No slippage, no surprise on settlement date, no need to build buffers around bank execution lag.
Structurally lower cost
Without correspondent banks, SWIFT fees, or settlement-risk premiums, the cost stack collapses. The savings are in the architecture.
Regulatory stack

Built on the strictest digital money framework in the world.

Every euro you send through HansePay sits inside this stack. Customer funds are segregated, the licensed entity is MiCAR-authorised, our German operation is supervised under BaFin.

The infrastructure does what infrastructure should do: it disappears. You send euros, your counterparty receives euros.

Read about our licences
Customer
Fiat in · fiat out
HansePay
Germany · BaFin oversight
BaFin-regulated entity
MiCAR-authorised · EU law
EU Regulators
MiCAR framework · EBA · ECB
FAQ

Questions CFOs ask us first.

How is this different from PayPal?
PayPal is also an e-money institution under EU law, same legal framework. The difference is scope and economics. PayPal optimises for consumer payments at around 3% per transaction. HansePay optimises for cross-border business payments from 0.20% on major currency pairs.
What happens to my money if HansePay fails?
Customer funds sit in segregated accounts at tier-1 European banks, ring-fenced from HansePay's operating capital. In an insolvency, those funds are not part of the insolvency estate. They are legally protected under MiCAR Article 75 and returned to clients at par value.
How does my auditor classify EMT holdings?
As a cash equivalent, on the same balance-sheet line as your operating account. EMTs are treated as electronic money under EU law. No special tax treatment, no capital-gains tracking, no mark-to-market on every transaction.
What if the settlement network has issues?
The settlement infrastructure is multi-rail. If a primary network is congested, transactions route through redundant rails automatically. The user experience is unchanged. Settlement may take slightly longer in the rare fallback case, but the rate-lock and cost economics are preserved.
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