Your security is crucial to us at 3S Money. We want you to feel safe when storing funds in our International Business Account, or using it to make international payments. Learn more about how we do this, from the financial protection schemes we’re part of, to how we’re regulated and safeguard your money.

What’s a financial protection scheme?

Financial institutions such as UK-authorised banks, building societies and credit unions are legally required to participate in financial protection schemes such as the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). 

This is because banks lend out money that their customers deposit, making profits on their investments. If many borrowers cannot repay their loans, then a bank may become insolvent and be unable to return customer funds. This is why the government makes them insure their deposits via FSCS — in case something goes wrong.

The FSCS is legally obliged to pay back customer funds to eligible customers up to the maximum compensation of up to 85,000 GBP, or 170,000 GBP for joint accounts.

3S Money is regulated under an EMI license by the FCA. (Unsure what an EMI is? Learn about them here.) However, we do not protect your money under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). We’re different from the institutions listed above because we do not lend out money deposited by our clients. Instead, we safeguard our clients' money just in case anything happens to us.

What is safeguarding?

Safeguarding is used by Payment Institutions and E-Money Issuers (PIs and EMIs) to protect funds they hold on behalf of their clients in the event they were to go into liquidation.

This means that, by law, we must keep all your funds in accounts that are separate from 3S Money operational funds. If something happens to 3S Money, your funds are safe and protected. This is officially called ‘safeguarding of funds’.

Where is my money held?

We have correspondent banks all over the UK and Europe and hold your funds in Raiffeisen Bank International Austria, Banking Circle and Crown Agents Bank UK.

We safeguard your funds at different financial institutions to reduce concentration risk. We assess the creditworthiness of all our safeguarding partners and ensure that no single partner safeguards all our customer funds.

If the banks where we safeguard your money were to become insolvent, then we wouldn’t be able to guarantee the return of all of your money. However, we regularly review these banks to ensure that they remain low-risk. We would change banks if we saw any issues.

Who is 3S Money regulated by? 

We're licenced and regulated by:

• The Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom.

• The Dubai Financial Services Authority in Dubai.

• The Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier in Luxembourg.

Last updated: 29/09/23