Question 1

Do you add fees for negative interest rates?

Accepted Answer

Custody Fee/Negative Interest

As of 1st October 2022, the applicable total negative interest ‎rate is 0.00% (0.75% ECB rate + -0.25% markup = 0.50%, however, as we are a Payment Institution, not a Bank, we are not permitted to pay interest on funds held on account with us, so the EUR custody fee is adjusted to 0.00%) per annum on the average daily balance in a calendar month on Account held in EUR. Freemarket reserves the right to charge custody/negative interest fees with respect to any other currencies which attract negative interest rate fees in the future.

Why do we charge custody/negative interest fee?

This fee is charged to recover our costs associated with holding funds in a particular currency. It includes negative interest reference rates, which are set by central banks, such as the ECB for funds held in EUR. In addition to the negative interest rates, our mark-up over the reference rate includes certain additional cost components we have to consider, including any other costs such as ECB deposit facility rates passed on to Freemarket by its banking partners.

Normally, banks do not pass their costs on to their customers as they can use the deposit base for lending activities, but due to regulatory restrictions all funds held for payment service providers like Freemarket must be 100% liquid, and so these additional costs are charged to clients like Freemarket.

Thus, as an example, the ECB base reference rate for EUR is currently +0.75% and mark-up is -0.25%, giving a total negative interest rate of +0.50% per annum for EUR balances held on account. However, as we are a Payment Institution, not a bank, we are not permitted to pay interest on funds held on account with us, so the EUR custody fee is adjusted to 0.00%.

Negative Interest Fee Illustration:

A transfer to your account of €100,000 was made on 1st April 2022 and you have given us instructions for an onward transfer of €50,000 on 16th April 2022. There have been no withdrawals from your Freemarket account since then. The remaining balance on your account on 30th April is €50,000. The average daily balance for the month is therefore €75,000 (€100,000 for 15 days and €50,000 for 15 days) The applicable total negative interest rate is 0.25% per annum based on the average daily balance in a calendar month on account held in EUR. Thus, you would be automatically charged €15.63 (€75,000 * 0.25% / 360 *30).

Effective Dates: the new rates as set out in the table below are effective as follows:

New Clients:

Corporate: 1st October 2022

Small Charity & Micro Enterprise: 1st October 2022

Existing Clients:

Corporate: 1st October 2022

Small Charity & Micro Enterprise: 1st October 2022

*As of the Effective Date and Subject to Change without notice.

**Total Interest Rate as of the Effective Date. The total interest rate is indicative only and subject to change without notice.

***Actual 360 is the method that calculates interest daily by counting the number of days in the calendar but uses a fixed 360 length.

****Adjusted to 0.00 as no custody fee is chargeable as total interest rate after applying Bank Mark-up is positive.

Question 2

Why was my withdrawal cancelled?

Accepted Answer

If you received an automated communication informing you that your transaction has been cancelled don't panic if you didn't cancel it yourself. We may have cancelled it for the reasons mentioned below:

Reason 1: If the beneficiary details are missing some information, our operations team might rescind the transfer and require the client to create the beneficiary again using the correct information. Longer processing times may be experienced if incorrect information is provided when completing the withdrawal.

Reason 2: Another explanation might be that the rate provided at the time the client made the exchange was less favourable than the one our operations team ultimately secured for the exchange. To allow the client to affirm that transferring more funds to the beneficiary account is acceptable, the transaction is consequently immediately cancelled.

What to do if your transaction has been cancelled as a Freemarket client: email our client support team to investigate.

Question 3

Do you offer multi-currency IBAN accounts?

Accepted Answer

Yes, we do; a multi-currency account allows you to send and receive money in a variety of different currencies.

While we expand the number of local collection and settlement options you may use on our network, we can make local payments for you and utilise a number of payment networks.

Question 4

Where can I view my SSI's on the platform?

Accepted Answer

Your account information is essentially included in an SSI, or Standard Settlement Instructions. This information may be seen on the homepage's right-hand side.

Your account information, the accounts you have, and the available currencies to which you have access are listed. There will also be an overview of your vIBAN details.

When you top up or transfer on the platform you'll also see your details shown.

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Question 5

What are approvals and roles on the platform & how to change them?

Accepted Answer

There are five main user roles on the platform; client admin, account user, read only, exchange approver and withdrawal approver – these are all permissions that a client can manage themselves.

Client Admin: being able to create payments, exchanges and manage users
Exchange Approver: this user will be able to approve an exchange before it is actioned and scheduled
Read Only: unable to make any changes, create payments or exchanges and only allowed to view features of the platform
Account User: able to create payments and exchanges on the platform
Withdrawal Approver: this permission setting will be able to approve a withdrawal before it is actioned and scheduled
Manage Users: this enables you to temporarily suspend or reinstate users, modify permissions, and add or delete people

Each of the user roles has different permissions, meaning they can access different parts of the platform. You can also disable email notifications for a particular user if preferable, and they don’t want to be notified via email. The overriding administrator of the account can set up the different permissions or contact support if you are unable to do this and require assistance.

Head to user management to change permissions and view your current status.

Question 6

Why is the amount which reaches the beneficiary sometimes less than the amount sent?

Accepted Answer

Since you gave us the order to exchange the currency, the exchange rate may have fluctuated. We don't cover this then recoup since we don't grant you credit; instead, we ask that you have a 2% buffer in place.

Our global network of banks and NBFIs, with which Freemarket has partnered up, gives us access to mid-market rates in real-time. This enhances your options and enables us to join bigger trading pools, ensuring that you receive the best prices possible.

Before completing a transaction, you will always get an updated quote when you make an exchange.

Question 7

Can I have confidence in your safeguarding processes?

Accepted Answer

Freemarket undertakes an annual audit of its compliance with the PSRs 2017 safeguarding requirements.

For more information on our safeguarding processes please see our other articles on the subject here.

Question 8

How to download account balances from the platform

Accepted Answer

Downloading your currency balances is an easy and simple process.

For each currency that you have access to, if you head to the Balances tab it will show the transaction history from the account in its entirety. The overview will display the beneficiary, incoming transactions, outgoing transactions, and overall balance of the currency.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/fnDSsgZVaa/resources/Y9oC1bOmzu/SS%20-%20Balance%20Download.png (SS - Balance Download)

From this viewpoint, you’ll be able to see the history for the currency – which can be located in the lefthand side of the screen – and you can toggle the side panel in order to select which currency you want to view.

Exporting the data from the platform is an easy task and you can do this in a matter of seconds. The platform by default will export the entire transaction history in your selected format. By clicking on green calendar icon (that is situated next to date), you are able to select a date range to view or export. Once, you have the currency and timeframe selected you can export the data in PDF or XLS format (as highlighted).

Question 9

Why was my account rejected?

Accepted Answer

You will receive an email from us informing you that your application was unsuccessful and declined by the platform, along with the reason(s) behind it.

It's possible that the application was turned down because it didn't match our risk tolerance. Freemarket takes an appropriate risk-based approach to achieve our strategic and commercial objectives. Further information on our risk appetite here and unsupported jurisdictions may be found here.

The application would be assessed by our risk team in conjunction with a Relationship Manager or a member of our support staff, who would also explain why it was turned down. They will be able to offer guidance and respond to any inquiries why your account wasn’t approved for payment solutions at this time.

Question 10

How can I receive a stablecoin?

Accepted Answer

To receive stablecoin, you first need to create a channel. Channels are unique, static digital wallet addresses linked to your account, and you can set up a different channel for each payer you are expecting to receive stablecoin from so you can easily reconcile the funds.

When a channel is created for either USDC or USDT, a unique wallet address is generated for each protocol we support. If you would like to know more about the protocols available, please contact the Freemarket support team.

Creating a new channel

To create a new channel and wallet, go to the ‘Balances’ page and select the stablecoin you are looking to receive. Click the ‘Receive Digital Assets’ button located on the right-hand side of the screen.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/fnDSsgZVaa/resources/2iSrpv9mtJ/image%20%288%29.png (Receive digital assets)

Scroll to the ‘Add a partner’ section of the page and enter the name of the payer you will be receiving stablecoins from in the ‘Partner Name’ box. Click the green ‘Add partner’ button.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/fnDSsgZVaa/resources/vlr98OO0V1/image%20%289%29.png (Add partner)

A unique channel will be created for this partner (this should only take a couple of minutes). Once completed, the page will update with the available protocol wallet addresses. To copy the wallet address, click on the green copy icon on the right-hand side for the relevant protocol.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/fnDSsgZVaa/resources/WEV4lnpktt/image%20%2810%29.png (wallet address)

View existing channels

To view an existing channel, navigate to the ‘Balances’ page and select the stablecoin you want to view. Click the ‘Receive Digital Assets’ button.

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All your active channels and their wallet addresses will be displayed on this page. You can also view the channels and wallet addresses of the other stablecoin by selecting it from the ‘Select Currency’ drop down list.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/fnDSsgZVaa/resources/vlr98OO0V1/image%20%289%29.png (image (9))

What happens next?

When stablecoin is received into one of your wallets, it will automatically be applied to your balances in the Freemarket portal. Within the ‘Comments’ column on the Balances screen, the ‘Partner name’, that was input when the channel with the associated wallet was first created, will be displayed as the reference so that you can easily reconcile who you have received the stablecoin from.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/fnDSsgZVaa/resources/Qn0tcZNJ7I/image%20%2811%29.png (image (11))

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