# Clear Junction: Banking Infrastructure for Payment Companies > Clear Junction: FCA-licensed необанк and VASP. Correspondent accounts, vIBANs, SEPA, Faster Payments and CHAPS rails for необанки, необанки and crypto firms. Author: Алёна Дунаева — юрист, Family Office (https://wiki.private.law/authors/dunaeva) Last modified: 2026-07-02T20:55:00.000Z Canonical: https://wiki.private.law/en/clear-junction Topics: banking Jurisdictions: uk, eu Functional tags: corporate-banking, crypto-friendly Semantic tags: corporate-banking, crypto-friendly Article type: child --- **Lawyer, Family Office** --- Clear Junction is a London-based payments infrastructure provider for regulated financial institutions. Founded in 2016 by cross-border payments veteran Dima Kats, it has operated as an FCA-authorised neobank since 2017. The niche is precise: correspondent-style banking for the firms mainstream banks refuse to serve — neobanks, neobanks, crypto companies, remittance providers. The business is built on the problem known as de-risking. After 2015–2016, large banks shut correspondent accounts for payment and crypto firms en masse — not because of proven fraud, but because the compliance costs didn't pay off. Clear Junction did the opposite: it absorbed the compliance burden and sold the segment regulated access to GBP and EUR rails. ## Who They Are and the Licence Clear Junction Limited is an E-Money Institution supervised by the FCA (authorised in 2017). The second layer is an FCA cryptoasset registration: the company is one of only a handful of institutions holding a dual neobank + VASP status with a single regulator, which lets it legally combine fiat payments and digital assets in one window. There is no banking licence: client funds are protected via safeguarding — segregated accounts with partner banks under the UK Electronic Money Regulations — not FSCS deposit protection. In October 2025 the group formalised its first full Board: founder Dima Kats moved to the role of Group Executive Chair, and Teresa Cameron — the company's CFO for the previous four years — became Group CEO. ## Products and Rails - Correspondent accounts for financial institutions — the core product: GBP and EUR settlement for firms banks won't take. - Collection accounts and virtual IBANs: millions of vIBANs issued via API for the end customers of institutional clients. - GBP rails: Faster Payments, CHAPS, SWIFT. EUR rails: SEPA and SEPA Instant. - FX in major pairs. - Stablecoins: since July 2025 — on-chain USDC and USDT transfers across Ethereum, Solana and Tron; send, receive and convert to fiat within the same regulated perimeter. - December 2025 — the “Programmable Money Goes Mainstream” report: the company publicly backs a hybrid-rail model where classic schemes, permissioned platforms and public blockchains run in parallel. ## Who It Suits Banks — access to GBP/EUR rails without direct scheme membership. neobanks and neobanks — correspondent accounts and vIBAN infrastructure. Acquirers, crypto exchanges and digital asset firms, remittance providers. Strictly B2B: no retail or personal accounts, and the conversation makes sense at institutional scale. ## Onboarding and Compliance Institutional onboarding: KYB on the company and its UBOs, licensing status, AML policies, a documented flow of funds. For crypto clients — VASP/CASP registration and a coherent business model. Pricing and timelines are individual; per public sources, onboarding takes from several weeks. The sanctions filter is a strict UK perimeter: profiles with Russian economic exposure do not pass. ## Risks and Limitations - An neobank, not a bank: no FSCS deposit protection, safeguarding only. - Specialising in de-risked segments means constant regulatory attention: compliance queries and periodic re-KYC are routine. - No public pricing grid — every deal is negotiated. - The late-2025 CEO transition was an orderly succession, but the new management's strategy is worth monitoring. > 🍓 Clear Junction is correspondent banking for the firms mainstream banks won't take: FCA neobank + VASP, correspondent accounts, vIBANs, SEPA / Faster Payments / CHAPS — and stablecoin rails since 2025. For a payments business it is a working GBP/EUR perimeter; for private capital, it is the infrastructure its fintech assets' money runs through. ## Q/A ### **Is Clear Junction a bank?** No. It is an FCA-authorised E-Money Institution with an additional VASP registration. Funds are protected by the safeguarding regime, not by the FSCS. ### **Who gets onboarded?** Regulated financial institutions: banks, neobanks, neobanks, acquirers, crypto firms with VASP/CASP status, remittance providers. No retail or personal accounts. ### **What about stablecoins?** An on-chain service has been live since July 2025: USDC and USDT on Ethereum, Solana and Tron — send, receive and convert to fiat in the same regulated perimeter as SEPA/FPS payments. ### **How does Clear Junction differ from ClearBank?** ClearBank is a fully licensed clearing bank with FSCS protection and direct UK scheme membership. Clear Junction is neobank infrastructure focused on de-risked segments, including crypto. The former is more “bank”, the latter more flexible on client profile. --- **Related:** [BaaS and neobank in Europe](/en/baas-sponsor-bank), [Neobanks](https://wiki.private.law/en/neobanks), [ClearBank](https://wiki.private.law/en/clearbank), [BCB Group](https://wiki.private.law/en/bcb-group) 📎 We maintain a comparison file of payment infrastructure providers — licences, rails, pricing and onboarding across Clear Junction, ClearBank, BCB Group and peers. Request the current version via the form at [wiki.private.law](http://wiki.private.law/). --- ## FAQ ### Is Clear Junction a bank? No. It is an FCA-authorised E-Money Institution with an additional VASP registration. Funds are protected by the safeguarding regime, not by the FSCS. ### Who gets onboarded? Regulated financial institutions: banks, необанки, необанки, acquirers, crypto firms with VASP/CASP status, remittance providers. No retail or personal accounts. ### What about stablecoins? An on-chain service has been live since July 2025: USDC and USDT on Ethereum, Solana and Tron — send, receive and convert to fiat in the same regulated perimeter as SEPA/FPS payments. ### How does Clear Junction differ from ClearBank? ClearBank is a fully licensed clearing bank with FSCS protection and direct UK scheme membership. Clear Junction is необанк infrastructure focused on de-risked segments, including crypto. The former is more “bank”, the latter more flexible on client profile. --- ## Factual claims - Lawyer, Family Office - Clear Junction Limited is an E-Money Institution supervised by the FCA (authorised in 2017). - There is no banking licence: client funds are protected via safeguarding — segregated accounts with partner banks under the UK Electronic Money Regulations — not FSCS deposit protection. - In October 2025 the group formalised its first full Board: founder Dima Kats moved to the role of Group Executive Chair, and Teresa Cameron — the company's CFO for the previous four years — became Group CEO.