A permitted payment activity is a payment service that a licensed firm is allowed to provide under the terms of its regulatory authorization. Regulators rarely grant a blanket permission; instead the licence lists the specific activities covered. Under PSD2, for example, a payment institution is authorised for one or more of the payment services listed in the directive's annex, such as money remittance, issuing payment instruments, acquiring card transactions or payment initiation, and that scope appears on the public register.
Anything outside the permitted list is treated as a separate licensable activity. A firm that wants to add a service, such as moving from remittance into card acquiring, must apply for a licence variation first, often with extra capital and safeguarding arrangements. Carrying out a service without permission can amount to unauthorised business, which is why compliance teams map every product against the firm's permitted activities.