Q: What should I do if I've forgotten my password?

Go to the login screen and click forgot password , this will bring up the next screen for you to enter your email address. Enter your email address and click continue. You will receive an email with further instructions. Note that you may need to check your spam folder for this. If you do not receive an email and it’s not in your spam folder, then please contact Support .

Question 1

Can I make a payment from my Freemarket account?

Accepted Answer

Your Freemarket account does allow you to send and receive money. This may be a pooled account or vIBAN account that accepts payments or makes payments to the beneficiaries. You may start to make payments right away by setting up an account and confirming payments on it.

A variety of online payments can be made using your Freemarket account, but they must be within our risk tolerance and not breach sending or receiving funds to or from countries where we do not have support. Being a regulated company, we take this seriously and update it frequently. Our operations team occasionally blocks specific payments that violate this.

How you want to send a payment may differ, by which scheme and channel, this could be SWIFT, SEPA, FPS and so on. Each payment has different costs, receipts (transaction message) and reporting.

SWIFT: this is used to send or receive international payments via the SWIFT payment network.
SEPA: SEPA stands for Single Euro Payments Area and it's a payment type used to transfer euro within the EEA.
SEPA Instant: allow you to send 100,000 per transaction, they are available 24/7, 365 days a year, and take no more than 10 seconds to reach payee’s account from the payer’s.
FasterPayments: for the majority of UK-based payments Faster Payments is in place for bank-to-bank payments and designed to speed up the process of sending money. It has a limit in place of £1m per transaction.
Target2: is the real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system with payment transactions being settled processing euro payments.

If more funds are required for the payment in the platform, add them to generate a new payment. By navigating to the add funds area towards the top of the page's main menu, you may add funds to your account. Choose the currency of the funds you want to use for the payment from the add funds page, and the necessary bank information will then show up. After the funds have arrived in your account and are available for allocation, you will get an email confirmation.

After you have the funds, establish a new payment to continue, go to the transactions page, choose the beneficiary of the money (the beneficiary information will appear if it has already been used), and authorise the payment.

Question 2

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 3

Can I get a MT103?

Accepted Answer

All banks and financial institutions utilise MT103, a SWIFT standard messaging protocol, as a globalised proof of payment document.

Although though it is no longer the quickest or cheapest means to transport money, SWIFT, which was first established in the 1970s, remains a trustworthy way to transfer funds between markets and jurisdictions. A bank or financial institution won't often provide you an MT103 receipt; if you do, it will likely cost you as the user. The MT103 provides you with a breakdown of the transaction, including information on the sender, the organisations handling the payment, the transaction's value, fees, and more.

Please contact Support for further information on this.

Question 4

What should I do if I've forgotten my password?

Accepted Answer

Go to the login screen and click forgot password, this will bring up the next screen for you to enter your email address.

Enter your email address and click continue. You will receive an email with further instructions. Note that you may need to check your spam folder for this.

If you do not receive an email and it’s not in your spam folder, then please contact Support.

Question 5

Do you have a glossary of commonly used terms?

Accepted Answer

At Freemarket, we try to keep things as straightforward as we can. However, if there are any terms that are unclear, we’ve compiled a glossary to help explain.

A

ABA routing transit number

American Bankers Association code originally used on US cheques now also used in Fedwire and US ACH payments.

Anti-Money Laundering (AML)

Checks set out by financial regulators to prevent proceeds from criminal activity being filtered through the banking system. Describes the legal controls that require financial institutions and other regulated entities to prevent, detect, and report money laundering activities. There are multiple layers of checks undertaken by Freemarket:

Client screening – onboarding checks (KYC and various levels of Diligence, depending on the risk of the client) to ensure client is bona fide. Details are refreshed periodically, at a frequency determined by the risk of the client.
Transaction screening – check the beneficiary and other aspects of the payment are bona fide before the payment is sent
Transaction Monitoring – perform checks of payments sent over a period to look for suspicious patterns (e.g. for “smurfing”)

Automated Clearing House (ACH)

A US-based organisation that processes massive amounts of debit and credit transactions such as direct deposit, payroll and vendor USD payments in the USA.

Application Programming Interface (API)

A way for two or more computer programs to communicate or interface with each other, intended to simplify the building of client-side software. It has been described as a “contract” between a client and server, such that if the client makes a request in a specific format, it will always get a response in a specific format or initiate a defined action. Clients use our API to communicate with our system to initiate some action like an exchange or to get details like transfers.

B

Basis points (bp)

Often used in relation to fees, charges and variable mark-ups on currency rates. Each basis point is 1/100th of 1% - for example, 50bp is half a percent i.e. 0.50%.

BBAN

Basic Bank Account Number. In the UK this is the 6 digit sort code + 8 digit account number.

BIC

A Business Identifier Code (BIC) is a unique code that tells the Swift network which bank is making/receiving messages, helping to process payments.

Bid rate

The bid rate is the rate quoted to you when you’re about to buy a currency.

C

Charge type

The type of deduction made by a receiving bank for a priority payment. There are two available payment charge types - ‘Shared’ (SHA) and ‘Ours’ (OUR).

SHA payments: the intermediary bank charges are deducted from the payment amount. As a result, the payment amount received in the beneficiary bank account may be less than the full amount expected.

OUR payments: the intermediary bank charges are covered by the payer and not deducted from the payment amount. The beneficiary receives the full payment amount but the payer will be charged a higher payment fee to cover the intermediary bank charges.

Clearing

The process of confirming, documenting and settling a transaction as well as managing credit and collateral exposures and supporting monitoring and reporting processes. These processes are handled by a clearing house as they require a single, central, trusted entity which can trade with all its members on terms that enable certainty and consistency.

Correspondent bank

Banks are financial institutions that are licensed to provide financial services, such as deposit taking, lending, currency exchange and payment services.A correspondent bank is a bank in one country that is authorized to provide services for another bank or financial institution in a foreign country.

Cross-border payment

Cross-border payment is a term referring to transactions involving individuals, companies, or banks operating in at least two different countries.

Counter-terrorist financing

A multitude of laws and regulations have been enacted to reign in the financing of terrorist activity, and are collectively known as counter-terrorist financing policy. Under these policies, most financial institutions are required to fulfil many strict requirements regarding monitoring customers’ transactions and behaviour, conducting proper due diligence, and maintaining appropriate records.

Currencies

Currencies are a system of money accepted within a country, for example the Pound Sterling in the UK, or the Euro across the Eurozone.

Currency pairs

A currency pair is a quotation featuring two different currencies, with currency being quoted in terms of the other.

D

Delivery date

The delivery date is the date on which the purchased funds are available for payment.

Direct and cover

Non-serial payment messaging where the initiating bank sends a payment message directly to the beneficiary bank (MT103), and sends funds to cover the payment (MT202COV) on an FI-to-FI basis.

E

Enhanced due diligence

A KYC process that provides a greater level of scrutiny of potential business partnerships and highlights risk that cannot be detected by Customer Due Diligence.

Exchange rate

An exchange rate is the price of one country's currency expressed in another country's currency. An exchange rate has two components, the domestic currency and a foreign currency (see currency pairs), and can be quoted either directly or indirectly.

F

Faster Payments (FPS)

The UK's banking initiative for sending sterling payments electronically in the UK and reducing payment times between different domestic banks' customer GBP accounts. Generally, the receiver see the credit on the account within seconds and also be able to access the funds.

FinTS

FinTS (Financial Transaction Services) is a bank-independent protocol primarily used in Europe for online banking.

Foreign exchange

Foreign exchange, FX or Forex is the market in which currencies are traded. Financial institutions and payments providers trade trillions a day.

Forwards

A forward conversion is an agreement, usually with a bank or financial provider, to exchange a specific amount of currencies sometime in the future (greater than two days later) for a specific rate.

I

IBAN

Interchange fee

An Interchange is a fee paid between banks from the acquirer to the card issuer each time a card payment transaction occurs.

ISO currency code

The ISO currency code is the three letters also used in exchange rates. Devised by the International Organization for Standardization it is a country’s two characters and a letter denoting the country’s currency. For example, in Hong Kong the currency is Dollars and so the ISO code is HKD.

K

Know Your Business (KYB)

In Europe: identifying the beneficial owner and taking reasonable measures to verify that person’s identity so that the obliged entity is satisfied that it knows who the beneficial owner is, including, as regards legal persons, trusts, companies, foundations and similar legal arrangements, taking reasonable measures to understand the ownership and control structure of the customer; EUR-Lex

In US: beginning on the Applicability Date, covered financial institutions must identify and verify the identity of the beneficial owners of all legal entity customers (other than those that are excluded) at the time a new account is opened (other than accounts that are exempted).

Know Your Customer (KYC)

Know Your Customer (KYC) is a requirement that protects both financial institutions and their clients. Financial institutions are required to formally verify the identity of all clients and understand the purpose of trading, expected volumes and jurisdictions their clients will use.

Know Your Client's Customer (KYCC)

Where KYC must be conducted on an underlying service user who is not directly contracting with the provider of those services. May be required in certain circumstances for named vIBANs.

L

Local payments

Local payment schemes are payment initiatives set up in a domestic market to make the payment process between banks more efficient. Schemes include ACH, Faster Payments and SEPA.

M

Margin

Margin is financial collateral used to cover credit risk and is set aside as a good will deposit as collateral to hold a position against future trades as security to cover any potential losses the provider may incur as a result of non-settlement of the trade.

Margin call

A margin call means that the exchange rate has moved sufficiently so that the initial margin held is no longer sufficient to support the “open” or unsettled trades and additional deposit is required to cover the risk to the provider.

Measuring rates

Since most currencies are quoted to a maximum of 4 decimal places, movement in currency rates, no matter how small, will have an impact on the price you pay. Rates are measured in three factors. These are spreads, pips and basis points. The spread is the difference between ‘bid’ and ‘offer’ prices.

Mid-market rate

Usually, financial institutions make money by charging different prices for buying and selling a currency. The mid-market rate eliminates this margin, and is the exact halfway point between the two. At Freemarket, is the rate we use for our matched, scheduled currency exchanges.

Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO)

MT103

This is a standardized Swift payment message. It is accepted as proof of payment and includes all payment details such as date, amount, currency, sender and recipient

Multi-factor Authentication (MFA)

An electronic authentication method in which a user is granted access to a website or application only after successfully presenting two or more pieces of evidence to an authentication mechanism.

N

Nostro account

The account that a respondent bank holds at a correspondent bank, usually for the purposes of payment clearing. Described as the Nostro by the respondent bank (as derives from the Latin for ‘ours’). The correspondent bank describes its provision of these accounts to other FIs as a ‘Vostro’ or ‘clearing’ service (Vostro derives from ‘yours’).

O

Offer rate

The offer rate is the rate quoted to you when you’re about to sell currency. Also known as the ask price or sell price.

Open Banking

A banking practice that provides third-party financial service providers open access to consumer banking, transaction, and other financial data from banks and non-bank financial institutions through the use of application programming interfaces (APIs).

P

Payee

A payee is an entity receiving payments through any form of money transfer method. Also known as the beneficiary.

Payer

A payer is an entity, either an individual or organisation, that makes a payment to another entity.

Payment Service Provider (PSP)

Politically Exposed Person (PEP)

Someone who has been entrusted with a prominent public function. A PEP generally presents a higher risk for potential involvement in bribery and corruption by virtue of their position and the influence that they may hold.

Pip

In currency exchange, Pip stands for “point in percentage”; it is used to describe how values change between currencies. It is usually measured at the fourth decimal point. For example, if the GBP/EUR rate is 1.1425, and the Pound depreciates by five Pips against the Euro, the new rate would be 1.1420; a depreciation of €5 in every £10,000.

Q

Quote rates

The quote rate is the most recent market price that a currency was traded on, meaning a buyer and seller agreed to trade at that price.

R

Regulated entities

Regulated entities are the service providers governed by financial regulation, such as banks, brokers and payments companies.

Real-time pricing

Real-time pricing gives customer information about the actual cost of the transaction at that point in time. For example we will provide the actual exchange rate along with the cost for an exchange that customer could get if the customer choose to execute the transaction at that point in time.

S

Safeguarding

Payment Service Providers acting as Authorised Payment Institutions must ensure that relevant client funds are appropriately identified, managed and protected on a day-to-day basis; this includes the clear segregation, designation and reconciliation of client balances. Client's funds are held in safeguarded accounts at authorised credit institutions (Freemarket’s Banking Partners) in the UK and EEA. Safeguarding requirements are in place to protect client funds if the payment service provider (PSP), in this case Freemarket, were to ever become insolvent.

Sanctions

Economic sanctions are commercial and financial penalties and restrictions applied by one or more countries against a targeted country, group, or individual. Sanctions may include various forms of trade barriers, tariffs, and restrictions on financial transactions.

Settlement date

The settlement date is the day on which a trade or a contract must be reconciled. The buyer must make payment of the sold currency before the conversion is processed and the purchased currency is available for payment.

Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA)

The European's domestic clearing scheme for simplifying the European banking transaction network and processing EUR payments within the SEPA region.

Spot trade

The spot rate is the price quoted with settlement usually for settlement in T+2 (fulfilment / delivery 2 business days after contractual execution) on a commodity, security or currency transaction. The spot rate, also referred to as the “spot price,” is the current market value of an asset at the moment of the quote.

Spread margin

When an institution buys a currency at one price and sells it at another, the difference between the two rates is called the spread margin. It is often denoted in Pips or Basis points.

Swift

Swift stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications. Set up in 1973, it’s a member-owned cooperative that developed a communication platform to transmit secure financial transaction information between the financial institutions it represents.

T

Third-party payments processor

A third-party payments processor lets businesses handle transactions from various channels such as credit cards and debit cards, without having to establish their own banking relationships or set up a merchant bank account of their own.

TOD conversion

A TOD conversion is a conversion that will settle today.

TOM conversion

A TOM conversion is a conversion that will settle tomorrow (T+1). The T stands for Transaction Date.

Triangulation

Triangulation is a method of currency exchange where one currency amount is converted to another through an intermediate currency.

U

UETR reference

This is a unique reference associated with every Swift payment that is kept and shared by each bank involved in the payment.

Ultimate beneficial owner

The person or entity that is the ultimate beneficiary of the company. The underlying reason for identifying UBO is to prevent natural persons with malintent, such as money-laundering or financing terrorism, from being able to hide behind a company, foundation or other legal entity. The ultimate beneficial owner of a legal entity is the natural person who: holds an interest of at least 25% in the legal entity’s capital; OR can exercise at least 25% of the voting rights at the general meeting of shareholders OR is the beneficiary of at least 25% of the legal entity’s capital.

V

Virtual IBAN (vIBAN)

A virtual IBAN (International Bank Account Number) is issued by a bank to allow incoming payments to be rerouted to a different, real, physical bank account.

W

Wholesale rate

The wholesale market used by banks, governments, investment funds and large corporates to buy and sell foreign currency is called the Spot Market. For most currencies, the standard settlement period for spot trades is two business days.

Wire transfer

Wire transfer is the means of transferring money electronically around the world. This can be institutions, individuals or organisations. Also known as a ‘Swift payment’ as wires are dependent on Swift messaging and correspondent banking.

Question 6

What are your support hours?

Accepted Answer

Our support team is on hand to answer any queries that might arise. The team is happy to assist you or point you in the right direction.

Monday: 8am – 17:30pm
Tuesday: 8am – 17:30pm
Wednesday: 8am – 17:30pm
Thursday: 8am – 17:30pm
Friday: 8am – 17:30pm

If your request is outside of those hours, we might ask that you send an email and we will respond as soon as possible.

Question 7

Can I transfer between two accounts held at Freemarket?

Accepted Answer

Moving money across accounts allows for instantaneous settlement. This transfer within the account is quick and painless. The intra-account capability on the Freemarket platform can be advantageous when moving to another account since it allows for seamless money movement across accounts.

Be careful not to mix up inter account transfer with a intra-account transfer.

Inter account transfer – this allows you to move funds internally between accounts that you own. This type of transfer will go through our compliance checks before it settles.
Intra-account transfer – is when you can move money between accounts at the same financial institution or are keeping the funds within the same ecosystem, this allows us to instantly settle funds. A transfer of this kind we can operate straight-through reconciliation and doesn’t have to pass any additional compliance checks.

By keeping the funds within Freemarket we don’t have to use any payment schemes so it’s more cost-effective for the sender.

Question 8

Have you reconciled the funds that I sent to my Freemarket account?

Accepted Answer

Where funds have been transferred without including a reference, sometimes this may delay us automatically reconciling a payment to your account. Our operations team will have to manually find and reconcile the payment to credit your account. At this stage, please confirm which account the funds should be allocated to and provide evidence that the money should be allocated to that account.

Question 9

How can I withdraw the balance from my account?

Accepted Answer

You might receive a notification via email requesting that you withdraw the funds in your account. There's a simple fix if you have no way of doing so.

We regularly require that each and every one of our clients through a re-verification process. Our compliance team will contact you if your account has been suspended or has entered the re-verification phase and ask you to submit certain evidence for them to assess so your account may be authorised and the option to withdraw funds made available once more.

Question 10

Which types of transaction must be safeguarded?

Accepted Answer

In PSRs, safeguarding applies to what are described as ‘relevant funds’. These are defined as sums received:

from, or for the benefit of, the Payment Services User for the execution of a payment transaction, and
from another Payment Services Provider (either a bank or non-bank) for the execution of a payment transaction on behalf of a Payment Services User

Consequently, Freemarket is obliged to safeguard any monies you transact through us including bank transfers and withdrawals. Freemarket’s own funds must be held in different operational bank accounts.

Similarly above, Freemarket Ireland under the PSR 2018 is obliged to safeguard “user’s funds” in the same way.

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