| Date: | 09/17/2026 |
|---|---|
| Organization: | Division of Banks |
| Location: | Boston, Massachusetts |
September 17, 2026
Martin Kardzhiev
Head of US
Contiant LLC
2810 N Church St, #807559
Wilmington, DE 19802
Dear Mr. Kardzhiev:
This letter is in response to your correspondence dated June 5, 2026 on behalf of Contiant LLC (Contiant) in which you request an advisory opinion that the activities of Contiant do not require a money transmission license pursuant to M.G.L. c. 169B. You have also provided supplemental information in support of your request.
Contiant is a Delaware limited liability company. According to your description, Contiant provides merchants and regulated financial institutions with a secure alternative to traditional card-based payment methods. More specifically, your correspondence states that Contiant provides the technology infrastructure that enables consumer-authorized direct bank payments. Contiant’s platform may be integrated into merchant websites, applications, or point-of-sale environments, permitting consumers to authorize payments to merchants directly from their bank accounts. According to Contiant’s correspondence and website, Contiant’s platform allows merchants to accept direct bank payments, thereby avoiding credit card chargebacks, providing a more cost-effective payment method, and providing instant settlement to the merchant’s account.
As described in your correspondence, transactions are initiated and processed by a sponsor depository institution, serving as the Originating Depository Financial Institution (ODFI) within the ACH network. In this case, Contiant works directly with Safe Harbor Financial, a financial technology platform partnering with the ODFI, Partner Colorado Credit Union, a federally chartered credit union regulated by the National Credit Union Administration. The ODFI is responsible for originating ACH entries onto the ACH network on behalf of Safe Harbor Financial, and ultimately Contiant. The ODFI and other participating financial institutions are solely responsible for originating ACH entries and for the movement of money between financial institutions. Your materials have confirmed that the participating financial institutions in the payment flow are all depository institutions that are members of the ACH Network and/or the RTP Network operated by The Clearing House.
In a typical transaction, a user who wishes to purchase a product or service from a merchant selects “Pay by Bank” at checkout and authorizes their bank account to be debited. Contiant captures the user's bank account details and payment instructions and passes them to Safe Harbor Financial, as the ACH processor, who works with its partner, the ODFI, to originate the ACH debit from the user's bank account on the ACH network. Funds then settle into a holding account on the merchant's behalf.
As clarified in your supplemental correspondence, each merchant is issued a dedicated account directly at a participating depository institution. When a customer payment is processed via ACH, the debited funds are settled directly into the merchant's account at that institution, with no intermediate pooled or FBO account involved. This ensures that merchant funds are held in segregated, dedicated accounts at a federally regulated depository institution at all times. Once funds are settled, the merchant is notified that funds are available to collect. Merchants may collect their proceeds on a schedule and via a rail of their choosing. Payouts can be processed via ACH (standard settlement) or RTP (instant).
As summarized in your supplemental materials, Contiant's role is essentially limited to two functions: providing the payment initiation interface that the merchant integrates into their checkout process utilized by purchasers (either as a dedicated checkout page or as a "Pay by Bank" option within the merchant's existing checkout), and transmitting the ACH debit instruction to the ODFI. Once those instructions to the ODFI are delivered, Contiant's active role in the transaction is complete. The subsequent fund movement occurs between the banking parties.
Chapter 169B, § 4(a)(a) provides: “A person shall not engage in the business of money transmission or advertise, solicit or hold itself out as providing money transmission unless the person is licensed under this chapter.”
Chapter 169B defines “Money transmission'', as either:
(i) selling or issuing payment instruments to a person located in the commonwealth; (ii) selling or issuing stored value to a person located in the commonwealth; or (iii) receiving money for transmission from a person located in the commonwealth; provided, however, that money transmission shall only refer to transactions engaged in by a person for personal, family or household purposes and shall not include the provision solely of online or telecommunications services or network access.
Based upon the description of Contiant’s activities in your correspondence and supplemental materials, Contiant is not engaged in money transmission within the meaning of M.G.L. c. 169B. Contiant does not sell or issue payment instruments. Contiant does not receive, hold, possess, control, settle, transmit, or otherwise take custody of money or monetary value on behalf of customers or merchants. As described above, the movement of funds is initiated and executed by the ODFI and other participating financial institutions under their independent authority as financial institutions participating on the ACH or RTP networks. Contiant provides only the interface on the merchant’s website and the instructions to the ODFI. In addition, your correspondence avers that Contiant does not maintain customer accounts, wallets, stored value balances, reserve accounts, custodial accounts, or settlement accounts. Neither consumers nor merchants hold funds, balances, or monetary value with Contiant and your request confirms that all funds remain with the financial institutions. Accordingly, it is the position of the Division that Contiant does not require a money transmission license under M.G.L. c. 169B.
The conclusions reached in this letter are based solely on the facts presented. Fact patterns which vary from those stated above may result in a different position statement by the Division.
Sincerely,
Christine A. Docherty
Deputy Commissioner and General Counsel
O26003