Overview
Finantsinspektsioon is Estonia's financial supervision and resolution authority, an autonomous body with its own budget that supervises banks, insurers and insurance intermediaries, investment firms, fund managers, investment and pension funds, payment institutions, electronic money institutions, creditors and credit intermediaries, crowdfunding providers, crypto-asset service providers and credit servicers, and acts as the national resolution authority. It is funded by supervision and procedure fees paid by the entities it supervises, not from the state budget. At the end of 2025 it supervised 222 entities under covered frameworks — 146 licensed entities, 24 branches of foreign institutions and 52 public funds including pension funds. Its 146 licensed entities exactly matched its 146 staff, a coincidence its own annual report draws out: essentially one supervised market participant per employee. Everything below is Finantsinspektsioon's own data, from its Annual Report and Yearbook 2025.
Regulated sectors
11BanksPayment institutionsE-money institutionsInvestment firmsAsset managersCrypto-asset service providersInsurance companiesInsurance intermediariesPension fundsCredit servicersFinancial intermediaries & advisers
Figures as published by Estonian Financial Supervision Authority for FY2025. Source: Finantsinspektsiooni aastaaruanne 2025 (Estonian) (Approved 23 March 2026). Data as of 31 December 2025. Supplementary: Yearbook 2025 (English).
Leadership
4Kerstin PiltChair of the Management Boardsince 2026
Andre NõmmMember of the Management Boardsince 2014
Andres KurgpõldMember of the Management Boardsince 2002
Gerd LaubMember of the Management Boardsince 2026
Full board
Organisation (FY2025)
Staff146Headcount at 31 December 2025, up from 137 at end-2024. Whole-authority basis; Finantsinspektsioon notes that in a small state many staff carry several roles. Average age 40.5, average tenure 8.6 years. 16 joined, 7 left. 49 men, 97 women. Three interns
Staff — FTE basis135Average employees converted to full-time equivalent, including management board members (130 in 2024)
Operating expenditure€14.7mTotal operating costs (€14,668k) from the audited income and expenditure statement — not budget and not fee revenue. €13,124k in 2024
Operating income€14.6mSupervision fees €14,348k + other income €285k. Interest income of €326k brought the result for the year to €291k
Approved budget 2026€16,667,000Forward figure, approved by the Supervisory Board
Supervised entities (end-2025)
Entities licensed under covered frameworks222Derived: 146 licensed entities + 24 foreign-institution branches + 52 public funds (incl. pension funds)
— of which licensed entities1468 banks · 41 creditors · 7 credit intermediaries · 8 non-life + 2 life insurers · 38 insurance brokers · 3 EMIs · 12 PIs · 7 investment firms · 12 fund managers · 1 regulated market operator · 1 securities settlement system operator · 2 crowdfunding providers · 4 credit servicers (156 at end-2024)
— of which foreign-institution branches2423 in 2024. 6 bank · 7 non-life insurer · 3 life insurer · 5 insurance broker · 2 payment institution · 1 investment firm branch
— of which public funds52Public funds including pension funds, of 73 funds under supervision. Second and third pillar pension assets: €6.8bn and €1.1bn at year-end
Held out — non-public funds21Balance of the 73. Not public, so out of scope under the consumer-facing test
Held out — listed issuers54Supervised for disclosure only
Other supervised populations73 funds · 54 listed issuers · 109 entities under AML supervisionReported separately from the licence count; overlaps the categories above rather than adding to them
Licensing 2025
Activity licences granted6Two to credit servicers, two to fund managers, one to a creditor, one to a credit intermediary. Eight in 2024
Licence applications filed13Five for CASP licences · two each from credit intermediaries, credit institutions and fund managers · one each from a credit servicer and an e-money institution
Applications not reviewed4Left unreviewed principally because of material deficiencies in the documents submitted. Remaining proceedings continue into 2026
Licences withdrawn9Six in 2024
Fit-and-proper assessments279 people assessed202 positive assessments; in 77 cases the process ended without a final assessment because the candidacy was dropped, the person stepped down or the application was withdrawn. 447 assessed in 2024
Enforcement 2025
Fines imposed€416,800Calendar year 2025, imposed by the management board. €138,800 in 2024. Four misdemeanour proceedings ended in a fine, five were discontinued on expediency grounds
Criminal complaints filed4Three in 2024
Supervisory activity 2025
Management board activity52 meetings · 212 management decisions · 179 administrative decisions21 advisory guidelines issued
Consumer complaints507Up >35% on 2024 (374), driven by a wave of fraud. >70% concerned payment and credit services; 61 reports concerned suspected fraud, up ~75%
Public warnings issued844863 in 2024. Eleven were issued on Finantsinspektsioon's own initiative
Crypto / MiCA
FY2025CASP supervisorTransferred from the Financial Intelligence UnitFIU previously licensed virtual asset service providers under the money laundering prevention regime. MiCA expands the licensable services from four under Estonian AML law to ten
2025 activity10 crypto-asset white papers notified · 3 met requirements · 5 CASP licence applications filed
Supervision fee — crypto0.005%Volume component of the 2026 supervision fee for CASPs and ART issuers, set by regulation in December 2025
Notable 2025
One-to-one ratioFinantsinspektsioon employed 146 people and licensed 146 entities at the end of 2025 — the authority itself draws the comparison: essentially one supervised market participant per employee.
GovernanceRun by a four-member management board that decides collectively by majority vote, while a six-member supervisory board plans and monitors its work — chaired ex officio by the Minister of Finance, with the Governor of Eesti Pank a member ex officio.
Crypto handover — substantiveTook over crypto-asset licensing from Estonia's Financial Intelligence Unit — a substantive change of regime, not just of address, since MiCA regulates ten crypto-asset services against four under the previous Estonian AML framework.
Applications failing before assessmentFour licence applications were left unreviewed in 2025, principally because of material deficiencies in the documents filed — the authority's own explanation of why applications fail before assessment begins.
Fines tripledFrom €138,800 to €416,800 year on year, while the number of precepts fell from 15 to four.
Workforce composition97 of its 146 staff are women.
Key legislation
4Financial Supervision Authority Act (Finantsinspektsiooni seadus)Founding statute
Credit Institutions Act (Krediidiasutuste seadus)Banking (CRD/CRR)
Payment Institutions and E-money Institutions ActPSD2 / EMD transposition
Estonian MiCA implementationCASP authorisation transferred from the FIU; MiCA expands licensable services from four to ten
Registers, portals and publications