EML Payments reported its first good news to investors in almost three years on Wednesday, when it announced that the UK Financial Conduct Authority had removed a ban on its subsidiary Prepaid Financial Services Ltd doing new business.

The FCA advised that following PFSL’s completion of regulatory remedial work it was satisfied that the company had appropriate structures and risk management controls in place and that a requirement preventing PFSL from entering into new customers contracts would no longer apply, effective April 23.

The ban had been in place since October 2022, covering agents, distributors and customers.

EML got into trouble with Irish and English regulators in 2021 over poor risk management at subsidiaries in those markets. The regulatory intervention has been long running and resulted in disruption to business operations, losses and, more recently, a restructure of the company.

Last month, EML announced the sale of European subsidiary Sentenial to GoCardless.

In January, it put another subsidiary, PFS Card Services Ireland Ltd, into liquidation after a strategic review of the business concluded that it was “no longer commercially viable or sustainable”.

EML made a loss of A$12.4 million in the six months to December 2023, an improvement on a loss of $129.9 million in the previous corresponding period. Impairments figured prominently in both results. 

Revenue rose 30 per cent year-on-year to $150.7 million. However, much of the increase came from interest on more than $2 billion of segregated accounts held for prepaid and gift card customers. Without that, the revenue from contracts with customers was up only a little.