How to read a permission

1. Begin with the questions, not the word “licence”

Imagine that a colleague says: “We have a Mauritius licence.” The noun feels complete. It is not. You do not yet know whether the paper is a licence, an authorisation, an approval, a recognition or a registration. You do not know which Act issued it, which person holds it, what neighbouring code it is not, or whether the web directory and the Gazette still agree.

A useful permission analysis begins with five questions:

1. Is there a legal person at all? A Companies Act certificate, a Trusts Act instrument and a Financial Services Act licence answer different questions. The licence does not incorporate the company.
2. What legal act is on the paper? The FSC directory mixes licences, authorisations, approvals, recognitions and registrations. A reporting-issuer registration is not a dealer licence. A CIS administrator approval is not a CIS manager licence.
3. Which regulator? The Financial Services Commission and the Bank of Mauritius do not issue interchangeable letters. Payment Intermediary Services is an FSC code. A Payment Service Provider licence is a Bank of Mauritius permission under the National Payment Systems Act.
4. Which neighbouring code is it not? FS-1.7 is not SEC-4.1. A representative does not hold the dealer licence. An Authorised Company is not a Global Business Licence. Digital, private and Islamic banking are modes under the Banking Act, not four separate Acts.
5. Which date and which text? The working inventory is the FSC codified list consolidated as at 1 July 2026. GN 119 replaces the fee schedule from that date. Circular Letter CL20260107 records the operational fee year. A 2008 consolidation of the Fees Rules is not the July 2026 schedule.

These questions form your working file. The word “licence” is a starting label, not the analysis.

Legal starting points: Financial Services Act 2007, sections 14, 14A, 71A, 72 and 77; FSC codified list as at 1 July 2026; GN 119 of 2026. See the register note · Open the published text ↗.

A certificate is not a permission

A Mauritius company exists because the Registrar issues a certificate of incorporation. That company may later hold a Global Business Licence, an assets-management licence, or nothing of the kind. The Companies Act trial teaches the file. This course teaches the overlay.

The reverse error is as common. An FSC letter does not prove that the holder is a company, a partnership or a natural person. Read the holder field. Some codes are individual registrations. Some are recognitions of a foreign scheme. Some, such as FS-2.10, describe a representative office rather than a Mauritius activity licence.

The directory is not a certified list of currently issuable licences

The course inventory transcribes 114 distinct FSC directory codes, plus Financial Services Act section 79B as a 2026 statutory framework, plus nine Bank of Mauritius teaching categories. That is 124 permissions, each with the same dossier depth. The directory is a published map. It is not a Commission confirmation that every row is open, closed or renamed. FS-1.14 is kept because the web directory still prints it; the GN 119 replacement schedule reviewed for this edition does not. The mismatch is the teaching point.

FSC codified list; GN 119 of 2026 replacement First Schedule. Bank of Mauritius codes in this course are teaching labels, not official licence numbers.

2. A map of the legal framework

Permissions sit in a connected set of instruments. Open each part of the map to see the role it plays.

The practical reading order is: name the person, name the nature of the permission, name the Act and section, name the neighbouring code it is not, then add criteria, fees and circulars. Record the date at every step. Send tax-rate questions to Mauritius Tax.

The principal families of law

Family	Principal instruments to locate	How they connect
Ordinary financial services	Financial Services Act ss.14 and 14A	Activity licences. Money lending is 14A, not 14.
Corporate and global overlays	FSA ss.71A, 72, 77, 77A, 77C, 78, 79A, 79B	Management companies, nominee approval, GBL, Authorised Company, shared services, investment banking, private wealth.
Securities	Securities Act 2005	Exchanges, dealers, advisers, CIS, functionaries, foreign dealers, remote custodian.
Insurance and captives	Insurance Act 2005; Captive Insurance Act 2015	Insurer licences under s.11. Captive business has its own Act even where the directory header still cites the Insurance Act.
Trusts and pensions	Trusts Act; Private Pension Schemes Act	Qualified trustee and enforcer authorisations; scheme licences; administration authorisations.
Virtual assets	VAITOS Act ss.7 and 23	VASP classes versus ITO registration. FS-1.14 is not Class R.
Banking and payments	Banking Act 2004; National Payment Systems Act 2018	Modes of a banking licence; cash dealers; PSP versus system operator.
Fees and operations	Fees Rules 2008; GN 119; CL20260107	Schedule from 1 July 2026; annual fees due 30 September 2026.
2026 overlays	Family Office Rules 2026; Economic and Financial Measures Act s.20	Single and multiple family offices; section 79B framework with implementing-rules gap.

The working text for this trial is the FSC Act PDF updated as at 9 August 2025, overlaid with the Economic and Financial Measures Act 2026 insertion of section 79B. A 2025 consolidation is not a September 2026 print. Criteria PDFs linked from the directory are guidance; they neither derogate from nor restrict the Commission’s statutory powers.

Financial Services Act; Economic and Financial Measures Act 2026, section 20.

3. Five natures, two regulators, one inventory

The directory heading is “licences, authorisations, approvals, recognitions and registrations”. Keep the nouns.

A licence is the ordinary grant to carry on a named activity: assets management, a CIS manager, a long-term insurer. An authorisation often attaches to a scheme or a foreign participant: a CIS, a foreign investment dealer, a qualified trustee. An approval is a distinct Commission act: a CIS administrator, a nominee company. A recognition can be a foreign scheme or a remote custodian. A registration can be a reporting issuer, an insurance salesperson, or an issuer of initial token offerings. Section 79B is taught as a statutory framework until implementing FSC rules are complete.

Do not upgrade a registration into a licence because the commercial story sounds larger. Do not downgrade a securities exchange because the chapter sits next to a salesperson.

FSC and the Bank of Mauritius

The Commission’s First Schedule lists the sector Acts it administers. The Bank of Mauritius administers the Banking Act and the National Payment Systems Act. Digital banking, private banking and Islamic banking are defined modes of banking business. They are not four licence numbers invented for this course. The codes BOM-BANK, BOM-DIGITAL, BOM-PRIVATE and BOM-ISLAMIC are teaching categories so that each mode receives the same dossier depth as FS-1.1.

A money changer is not a foreign-exchange dealer. A Payment Service Provider is not a payment-system operator. Neither is FSC Payment Intermediary Services.

Directory versus Gazette

Compare three artefacts. The codified list is the web inventory with forms, fees and a criteria column. GN 119 of 2026 replaces the First Schedule of the Fees Rules from 1 July 2026. Circular Letter CL20260107 tells licensees how the 2026 fee year operates, including the 30 September 2026 annual-fee date. Where the directory still prints “Category 1 Global Business Licence”, the current statutory language is Global Business Licence under section 72. The course keeps the historical wording and flags it.

If a dedicated criteria PDF is not archived beside a code, the dossier says so and still points at the directory column that was checked. Empty fields are not allowed. Guessed capital figures are not allowed.

4. How to use a criteria PDF and a circular

A criteria PDF is a Commission list of what an application file is expected to contain: business plan, officers, capital where stated, manuals, substance. The specimen used in this course is the Global Headquarters Administration PDF for FS-1.8, and the Full Service Dealer excluding Underwriting PDF for SEC-2.1B. Other codes have their own column on the directory even where a separate PDF was not copied into the research set. That is a checked gap, not an invitation to invent a minimum capital.

A circular can extend a transitional period, revoke a practice note, or announce a fee year. It does not rewrite the activity. CL20260309 on managed corporate service providers is relevant to management licences. CL20261009, dated 10 September 2026, extends a bank-signatory transitional period for global business corporations. It does not turn an Authorised Company into a Global Business Licence holder.

USD figures on the directory apply, unless a different conversion rule is stated, to an applicant for or holder of a Global Business Licence. Spot-commodity rows state a Bank of Mauritius indicative-rate conversion for other applicants. Read the footnote on the row you are actually in.

5. How the rest of this course is built

Every permission in the inventory has the same core dossier: official code and name, legal nature, enabling Act and section, what it permits, what it is not, who may hold it, published criteria, fees, circulars, status, one fictional use example, and source links. Financial service provider chapters (FS-1.1 to FS-1.26) add two further fields: permitted activities and licensing conditions, quoting the Financial Services Act section, the Second Schedule listing, and any dedicated FSC Rules. Grouped chapters — family offices, spot commodity, dealers, advisers, funds, insurers, VASP classes, banking modes — add a short family frame and then one full dossier per code. A CIS (Single fund) section is not shorter than a CIS (Protected Cell Company) section.

The examples are teaching cases. They use fictional names. They are not application coaching and not a how-to for avoiding a neighbouring permission. Tax relief, when it exists, remains a Mauritius Tax question. This course does not recast licences as holidays.

When you finish a chapter, the knowledge check asks about distinctions inside that family, not a slogan about “financial services in Mauritius”. Keep the code, the Act and the date on the file.

Legislative cut-off for this course: 20 September 2026. Source-checked teaching draft; no independent practitioner sign-off.