Shares secures licence for EU trading, aims to be ‘Louis Vuitton’ of trading apps

finextra.com:

The company received the news late last week, and were waiting to receive the official letter from regulators before making today’s announcement.

Speaking to Finextra on the news, CEO and co-founder, Benjamin Chemla states: “It’s been crazy. We’ve had 18 months of going back and forth with different regulators but at the end of the day, the authorisations carry a lot of weight. We’re super happy and pumped to go live in Europe. I think we’re the very first fintech in France to receive these two approvals from the French regulator.”

Shares’ stock trading licence includes asset custody, meaning that the firm will be managing users assets on their books. The app’s crypto registration process was approved in April this year, and Chemla adds that Shares is currently working on its full crypto licence process which it hopes to obtain as soon as possible.

Chemla is optimistic about Shares’ roadmap, noting that their early crypto registration will allow them to fast-track their crypto licence application, positioning them well for broader European passporting under MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) when it comes into force in 2026.

While the waiting period for receiving the licence was a frustrating chapter for Shares (they’d hoped for a late 2022 launch), Chemla notes that the extra time allowed them to refine their product suite, adding more functionalities and assets. “We’ll be the very first platform that will offer US stocks, crypto, ETFs, fractional shares, all in the same place.”

Another feature Chemla says has seen considerable uptake in the UK is the app’s ‘Premium Investor’ tool, where users can (for a £2.99 monthly fee) subscribe to the profiles and communities of experienced investors to learn from and monitor their