FCA Fires A Flare Over Safeguarding Of Funds Related To Payments And E-money

Everyone worries about banks going bust, and whether there's enough capital and depositor protection if they do. That's because banks are allowed to treat the cash we deposit as their own (subject to the obligation to repay it when we want it). But non-bank payment service providers don't have this privilege, and depositor protection (the Financial Services Compensation Scheme) does not cover their activities. So PSPs must 'safeguard' funds related to the payment transactions they process and the e-money they issue. If they go bust, the safeguarded amount should therefore be available to the relevant customers instead of paying debts owed by the PSPs to their own creditors. As we live in troubled times, earlier this year the UK's Financial Conduct Authority sampled the safeguarding practices of 11 payment service providers to figure out whether  PSPs are safeguarding correctly. The results were not a disaster, but enough problems were detected for the FCA to feel the need to write to all PSPs requiring them to confirm their compliance with safeguarding requirements by end of July... Let's hope they all did! Confidence in a diverse, innovative and competitive payment system depends on PSPs being fanatical about the details involved in protecting customer funds.

Safeguarding Requirements

PSPs must safeguard "relevant funds" - i.e. money received:

• from, or for the benefit of, a user for the execution of a payment transaction; 
• from a payment service provider for the execution of a payment transaction on behalf of a user; or 
• in exchange for electronic money that has been issued,

where they continues to hold the relevant funds at the end of the 'business day' following the day on which they were received.

There are rules on when safeguarding obligations start and end; two different safeguarding methods (either through holding appropriate insurance or by segregating the funds in specially designated bank accounts); the type of account or 'relevant assets' in which the funds must be held; reconciliation and record-keeping; and when amounts that are not "relevant funds" must be removed and held separately to avoid 'commingling'.

To be fair to all concerned, the various definitions, other language and rules require a lot of interpretation to understand how they apply and the FCA has issued extensive guidance in Chapter 10 of its Approach to regulating e-money and payment services.

FCA Findings

Some firms were unable to explain which payment services they provided in certain situations, when they were issuing e-money or when they were acting as agent or distributor for another PSP. That meant they could not identify some "relevant funds" and didn't know whether they were safeguarding the correct amounts.

Even where they were clear on the status of funds, some PSPs did not segregate relevant funds on receipt; or received them into accounts with funds held for other purposes; or did not remove other funds more than once a day where it was practicable to do so.

In addition, some PSPs did not have up to date documentation that explained their treatment of funds and how their systems and controls would ensure compliance with the safeguarding requirements.

Some of the segregated accounts in which PSPs were holding relevant funds or assets were not correctly designated in a way that shows they were safeguarding accounts. 

Some firms did not carry out appropriate reconciliations, or did so infrequently or did not adjust the balance of their safeguarded accounts in a timely way when they identified discrepancies.

Rather than monitoring their processes and procedures to ensure compliance, some firms only checked if they spotted an actual breach - so their controls weren't able to alert them to a potential breach and safeguarding requirements weren't factored into new products.

Continuing Confusion Over Agents vs Distributors

PSPs are able to appoint agents and distributors, but are sometimes uncertain about the difference. The distinction turns on whether the proposed agent or distributor would be providing a payment service. A firm can only provide a payment service if it is either directly authorised or registered as the agent of an authorised PSP.  A distributor, therefore, cannot supply a payment service and, in my view, should not be handling relevant funds at all. Instead, the PSP should oblige the distributor to set up a 'float' of its own money that the PSP can draw on when issuing e-money or executing a payment transaction involving that distributor. That means when a customer pays money to the distributor (e.g. to 'load' or 'top-up' an e-money/prepaid account) the customer is not relying on the distributor to pass those funds to the PSP on the customer's behalf. The PSP already has the equivalent amount of funds that have now become 'relevant funds' to be safeguarded. The distributor can then pay the funds it receives from the customer into the 'float' for the PSP to draw on for the next transaction.

Confusingly, however, the FCA says PSPs are responsible for ensuring that the agent or distributor segregates any "relevant funds" held by the agent or distributor.  That suggests the distributor might be relying on some exclusion from offering a regulated payment service, but if that were so, the funds it receives from customers should not be 'relevant funds' in the first place...

At any rate, the FCA found that some firms calculated their safeguarding obligation at the end of the business day on which e-money was issued via a distributor or agent that received the corresponding funds, and only transferred the amount into a safeguarding account the next business day. This suggests all sorts of confusion!

Conclusion

The FCA is to be commended on its vigilance in this area, and PSPs have to be fanatical about the details if we are to have a diverse, innovative and competitive payment system that works effectively in good times and bad.