I put those numbers out there as a sort of guide for folks to express their confidence or lack thereof in Transferwise. Myself, I think I’m around 99% confident in them. When Mid Atlantic suggested I look further into their T and C’s I grew concerned.

I have been googling about this evening, and feel even more confident about them than I did before. FCA etc.

Just looking to learn is all.

well I have a borderless account. With that information can you render an opinion on how you feel about TWise?

thanks

Where is the boarderless account held?

There are different 'Terms and Conditions' for the US arm of Transferwise to those of the U.K. arm. Google Transferwise USA and Transferwise UK. Both have different financial regulations governed by their respective authorities.

Funds in a U.K. account , administered by the U.K. arm and under U.K. Financial Regulations (the funds are held in a Barclays account?) may require both FATCA and FBAR reporting if the account holder is a US Person.

Hi again. Well I live in the USA and opened my acct on line with Transferwise because I was anticipating receiving an inheritance from my Fathers solicitor back in London, where Dad lived. The money was transferred last month from Lloyd’s of London (solicitors bank acct) to Transferwise in Shoreditch London (I gave the solicitor a sort code and my borderless bank acct number with the Transferwise Shoreditch address. The funds are in U.K. pounds. I had another google yesterday about Transferwise, and it appears they are governed by FCA.

I did not realize that my money is actually in a Barclays Bank acct. Be that as it may, do you folks feel I should be confident in having funds there? FCA seems to indicate that Transferwise Shoreditch are bound to refund me if my loot gets pinched.

thanks again

So I found this, text is at the bottom. It makes clearer to me what Lansbury said earlier. If Barclays went bust I’m out of luck. May I infer from this though that if Transferwise went bust I’m insured up to £85,000? That last part isn’t exactly spelled out.

FWIW I’m happy to live with the possibility that Barclays might become insolvent.

As I type this I realize I’ve drifted away from my real concern, which is what happens if the account is hacked and my funds are stolen?

Is my money covered by a financial protection scheme?


TransferWise is an authorised Electronic Money Institution regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK.

We're required by law to protect your money by storing it in a low-risk financial institution (in Europe this is in our UK Barclays bank accounts).

That means that, in the unlikely event that TransferWise became insolvent, your money would be unaffected and should be refunded to you in full.

If our official Banking Institution (in Europe this would mean Barclays), became insolvent, your return of funds would not be guaranteed as the account is not guaranteed by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

We take the safety and security of your money very seriously. We fulfil rigorous regulatory standards in UK, Europe, US, and every country we operate in. As such, millions of customers trust TransferWise with their money, we currently move over £1 billion around the world every single month.”

okay mrken. Just to put what you have written in perspective, does Moneybox draw any distinction between the fraud occurring at Transferwise (Barclays), and the fraud occurring at a High St bank. That High St. bank could be Barclays again, or Lloyd’s etc.

thanks, so no difference between online fraud at Transferwise and online fraud at TSB or Santander.

i just got off the phone with TWise, agent needs to research and get back to me. She stated they will make me whole in the event of a hack/fraud, but could not explain how TWise would achieve that as they are not insured against such an event.

I will update on here when I get something in writing from TWise.

The reason I am letting the funds sit there at TWise is that I was hoping the GBP might improve between now and April next year, before converting to usd.