Running a Fintech business comes with many challenges, not least the requirement to comply with stringent rules and regulations surrounding the movement of money. When it comes to international payments, most businesses tend to turn to their bank as a trusted provider, but this often comes at a heavy cost in both charges and poor service.
Strict supervision
In the UK, whether you use a bank or an alternative payments provider, both will fall under the same strict requirements that are set out by the financial services regulatory body, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). These are designed to ensure that both client data and payments remain secure, that the money moves safely and ultimately ends up with the correct beneficiary. The FCA’s job is to authorise and then continually monitor firms operating in this area.
Compliance with the rules are designed not only to protect customers from potential fraud, but also to ensure that transactions are not being undertaken for any unscrupulous reasons. For instance, there are a variety of checks that need to be undertaken to properly identify the payer and the purpose of the payment to guard against money laundering activities or terrorist financing. There are also beneficiary checks to make sure that funds are not being routed to anyone on a global sanctions list or that the terms of the payment are not violating any specific regional regulations.
Culture of compliance
Adherence to compliance is not just the job of the compliance team. It requires everyone in the organisation to adopt a culture of responsibility, from the customer service team dealing with day to day enquiries to the developers implementing technology solutions. For any company operating in the financial services sector, their clients want peace of mind first and foremost. Moving money is a serious and sensitive business which requires thorough due diligence, implementing industry best practice and, above all else, the highest standards of security.
Payment services for CurrencyWave are provided by our trusted partner, The Currency Cloud. Owned by Visa Inc, Currency Cloud’s foreign exchange and payment platform provides customers with bank grade levels of security: –
Data Protection
Physical Security – multiple high security Tier 4 Data Centres used by banks and other financial institutions
Network Security – firewalls are managed by dedicated staff and we undergo regular third-party penetration tests, to ensure our service is secure
Encryption – all network traffic is encrypted, and all sensitive customer data is also stored in an encrypted format
Data Security – certified under ISO/IEC 27001:2013, the international best practice standard for information security management
Data Separation – multi-tenant architecture to ensure all customer data is stored separately from one another
Strong Access Control – unique ID’s for each individual and we require two step authentication for all access.
Segregated Bank Accounts
All client funds are sent to segregated client accounts held with Barclays Bank PLC (not just Barclays). Barclays does not monitor the funds that are placed on the safeguarding account or how you operate these accounts.
All client accounts are ring-fenced from the funds of The Currency Cloud and CurrencyWave and therefore protected in the unlikely event of any financial issues within either company.
FCA Regulation
Payment services for CurrencyWave are provided by The Currency Cloud Limited which is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN: 900199).
Registered in England No. 06323311. Registered Office: Stewardship Building 1st Floor, 12 Steward Street London E1 6FQ.
E-Money License
The Currency Cloud Limited is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 for the issuing of electronic money (FRN: 900199)
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