The licensing process generally begins with a public notice of the licence competition. One of the purposes of issuing a public notice is to alert potential applicants about the opportunity to obtain the licence. Accordingly, the public notice usually states the regulator’s intention to issue a licence and provides a high level summary of the licence and the licensing process. The public notice also provides information on where to obtain more information about the licensing process. In the past, notices of invitation to apply for a licence were sometimes sent to only a few qualified bidders that were pre-selected by an investment bank or other advisor to the regulator. However, with the increasing emphasis on regulatory transparency, most authorities will issue some form of public notice of their licensing process, often at a preliminary or pre-qualification phase of the process.