FCA Matters: Why You Shouldn’t Settle for Subpar Security and Compliance
Finding a secure and compliant financial service provider is important to your peace of mind. Here’s how UK customers can choose a service that operates in line with the FCA — and goes beyond the bare minimum.
Key Takeaways
- The FCA oversees many financial companies that operate in the UK
- As a regulator, the FCA has several roles, but it primarily ensures that companies operate in a compliant manner
- It also sets regulations to protect consumers and offers various resources
- Consumers should look for services that meet and exceed FCA standards
What is the FCA?
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a UK financial regulator. It operates independently of the UK government but is accountable to the Treasury and Parliament.
It is one of three entities established through the Financial Services Act 2012. That act also abolished the existing Financial Services Authority (FSA), in part due to its poor handling of the 2008 financial crisis, and reassigned its regulatory roles.
Over a decade later, the FCA has acquired significant oversight over the UK financial sector. It monitors about 58,000 businesses as of 2025.
What Does the FCA Do?
The FCA ensures that financial companies comply with rules and regulations.
More broadly, the FCA has three missions: it’s responsible for protecting consumers, stabilizing financial markets, and promoting competition between financial firms.
The FCA sets regulations that protect consumers. It additionally serves and informs consumers through a variety of resources, including databases of registered companies, warning lists, complaint submission tools, and educational resources.
The FCA engages with the financial sector directly — including by monitoring ads and promotions for accuracy, issuing fines and confiscating funds, filing criminal charges in cases of fraud, and introducing new rules for financial firms.
How Payset Complies With the FCA
Payset is regulated by the FCA as an authorized electronic money institution (EMI). Our FCA reference number is 900920.
That means you can look us up on the FCA registry and find out:
- What we’re allowed to offer in the UK and other regions
- Restrictions on our activities and operations
- Customer protections and support
- How you can issue a complaint to us directly
- How you can issue a complaint to other UK agencies
Safeguarding Protections
Our FCA registry entry additionally refers to our safeguarding policy.
Safeguarding means that we segregate 100% of customer funds from our business operation funds. This does not provide the same guarantee as insurance does, but it helps customers recover funds in the case of company failure.
It’s an alternative to insurance that’s permitted under the relevant UK legislation.
You can see our full safeguarding policy here, or you can read the FCA’s general information on safeguarding and user protections.
Our Compliance and Security Efforts
Payset isn’t just compliant with the FCA. We take additional steps to stay in good standing with regulators and the rest of the industry. Here are a few of our strategies:
- KYC/KYB during registration: When you sign up for a Payset account, you’ll need to provide us with documentation related to you or your business.
- Extra documentation for each transaction: When you make a transaction with a new counterparty, we’ll ask you for supporting documentation. This helps us maintain full compliance with banking partners and regulators.
- Fraud and scam prevention: Our anti-fraud team is ready to respond to unauthorized account access. We ask users to report all fraud and suspicious activity immediately through our reporting process.
- GDPR compliance: Payset complies with GDPR privacy rules that give you greater control over your personal data and information.
- Account protection: Your account is password-protected and has optional two-factor authentication (2FA) to guard against unauthorized access.
If You’re Outside of the UK
The FCA is primarily concerned with the UK but cooperates with other jurisdictions.
That means it also describes how Payset can operate in the European Economic Area (EEA).
Apart from that, Payset allows users to send or receive funds to/from more than 180 countries. To find out immediately whether Payset supports transfers to/from a particular country, see our permitted jurisdictions and the list of countries you can send funds to.
Ready for an Account?
Our extensive compliance efforts at Payset put us in good standing — but they also benefit you as a customer. You can rest assured that we provide safe, secure, and reliable service through maximum security and compliance.
With Payset, you can send, receive, and exchange up to 38 currencies in over 180 countries. Enjoy affordable fees, fast transaction times, real-time exchange rates, and more.
Frequently asked questions
What is a multi-currency account/virtual IBAN?
A Payset multi-currency account allows you to receive money in 34 different currencies and send money in up to 38 currencies, all within the same account.
You can deposit and withdraw funds, convert currencies at competitive exchange rates, and hold your chosen currencies to capitalize on market movements.
A Payset multi-currency account allows startups and business owners to receive payments from clients virtually anywhere in the world and pay suppliers, staff, and contractors quickly and affordably in their chosen currency.
- Funds can be deposited and withdrawn from the account for a small fee.
- Account holders can send and receive money with other Payset users for free.
- Depending on your region, you can use various payment networks from your Payset account, including SWIFT, SEPA, ACH, Fedwire, Faster Payments, BACS, and CHAPS.
- Once you register an account, you will be provided with a Virtual IBAN (International Bank Account Number), which makes all of these transfers easy.
- We provide you with local payments and collections. For example, transactions in USD, EUR, CAD, and GBP are processed through the local payment networks, which is far cheaper and takes minutes as opposed to days
Are there limits on the amount of money I can send and receive?
No, there are no transaction limits on Payset multi-currency accounts.
However, higher-volume transactions may require additional anti-fraud verification. If you plan to make a large transaction, contact us in advance to avoid verification delays.
How is Payset regulated?
Payset is regulated as an authorized Electronic Money Institution by the UK Financial Conduct Authority. Our activities are also regulated by the Payment Services Regulation 2017 and the Electronic Money Regulation 2011 (SI 2011/99).
How do I add money to my account?
How do I send money from my account?
Once you have opened your verified IBAN account and added money to a balance, transferring funds is simple.
Simply log in into your account and add a beneficiary, then simply “make a transfer” in your preferred currency to that beneficiary.
Types of Multi-Currency Accounts
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