How we keep your funds safe

So first and foremost, Excel Currencies is not a bank. We are what’s known as Payment Services Provider (PSP), which basically means we have the required licence to transact consumer money. We are fully authorised and regulated by the FCA and you can check that here on their website or head there yourself if you prefer - 

https://register.fca.org.uk/s/firm?id=0010X00004UxFm9QAF 

We have teamed up with the market leaders in cross-border payments technology, The Currency Cloud (also not a bank). Using TCC’s innovation, it allows us to provide simpler, faster, cheaper and more transparent payments for our customers. The Currency Cloud is an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) who are fully authorised and regulated by the FCA and you can check that here on thier website or head there yourself if you prefer - 

https://register.fca.org.uk/s/firm?id=001b000000m6y0WAAQ 

You will have no direct relationship with The Currency Cloud, they are simply providing technology that encompasses an account and transaction service. All contact, trading and payments are dealt with by Excel Currencies. When an account has been opened for you, we will send you a personal reference number and account details that will show The Currency Cloud’s name on and not mention Excel Currencies.

This is because you are opening an account using the TCC platform, which is controlled and regulated by Excel Currencies. In the UK this is done via Barclays Bank. The TCC platform is only accessible by regulated institutions, without us you wouldn’t be able to open an account with The Currency Cloud. 

So what happens if either Excel Currencies or The Currency Cloud were to no longer exist? 

In the unlikely event of this happening, customers’ money is protected through ‘safeguarding accounts’. By law, an EMI must open and hold customer funds in these accounts which are similar to that of an escrow account. They are never integrated into the companies own profit accounts.

If Excel Currencies fails, your funds would simply be returned by TCC. If The Currency Cloud fails, your funds would be returned by an insolvency practitioner in full. Funds are not allowed to move out of the safeguarding account without a customers’ say so. 

Why aren’t funds protected by the FSCS protection scheme? 

FSCS protection offers customers up to £85,000 compensation when a firm or bank fails. The independent organisation is legally obliged to pay back funds whether the firm or bank actually has this money or not. Safeguarding protects 100% of the money in the account, rather than just £85,000 and all EMI’s must comply this way.  

Founded in 2007, The Currency Cloud process over £1 billion each month, have raised over £140 million to date from high quality investors like Google and BNP Paribas and have recently been acquired by Visa for £800 million. We have been working with TCC since 2011 and will continue to do so for many years to come.