Key Takeaways
- The FCA oversees many financial companies that operate in the UK
- As a regulator, the FCA has several roles, but it primarily ensures that companies operate in a compliant manner
- It also sets regulations to protect consumers and offers various resources
- Consumers should look for services that meet and exceed FCA standards
What is the FCA?
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a UK financial regulator. It operates independently of the UK government but is accountable to the Treasury and Parliament.
It is one of three entities established through the Financial Services Act 2012. That act also abolished the existing Financial Services Authority (FSA), in part due to its poor handling of the 2008 financial crisis, and reassigned its regulatory roles.
Over a decade later, the FCA has acquired significant oversight over the UK financial sector. It monitors about 58,000 businesses as of 2025.
What Does the FCA Do?
The FCA ensures that financial companies comply with rules and regulations.
More broadly, the FCA has three missions: it’s responsible for protecting consumers, stabilizing financial markets, and promoting competition between financial firms.
The FCA sets regulations that protect consumers. It additionally serves and informs consumers through a variety of resources, including databases of registered companies, warning lists, complaint submission tools, and educational resources.
The FCA engages with the financial sector directly — including by monitoring ads and promotions for accuracy, issuing fines and confiscating funds, filing criminal charges in cases of fraud, and introducing new rules for financial firms.
How Payset Complies With the FCA
Payset is regulated by the FCA as an authorized electronic money institution (EMI). Our FCA reference number is 900920.
That means you can look us up on the FCA registry and find out:
- What we’re allowed to offer in the UK and other regions
- Restrictions on our activities and operations
- Customer protections and support
- How you can issue a complaint to us directly
- How you can issue a complaint to other UK agencies
Safeguarding Protections
Our FCA registry entry additionally refers to our safeguarding policy.
Safeguarding means that we segregate 100% of customer funds from our business operation funds. This does not provide the same guarantee as insurance does, but it helps customers recover funds in the case of company failure.
It’s an alternative to insurance that’s permitted under the relevant UK legislation.
You can see our full safeguarding policy here, or you can read the FCA’s general information on safeguarding and user protections.
Our Compliance and Security Efforts
Payset isn’t just compliant with the FCA. We take additional steps to stay in good standing with regulators and the rest of the industry. Here are a few of our strategies:
- KYC/KYB during registration: When you sign up for a Payset account, you’ll need to provide us with documentation related to you or your business.
- Extra documentation for each transaction: When you make a transaction with a new counterparty, we’ll ask you for supporting documentation. This helps us maintain full compliance with banking partners and regulators.
- Fraud and scam prevention: Our anti-fraud team is ready to respond to unauthorized account access. We ask users to report all fraud and suspicious activity immediately through our reporting process.
- GDPR compliance: Payset complies with GDPR privacy rules that give you greater control over your personal data and information.
- Account protection: Your account is password-protected and has optional two-factor authentication (2FA) to guard against unauthorized access.
If You’re Outside of the UK
The FCA is primarily concerned with the UK but cooperates with other jurisdictions.
That means it also describes how Payset can operate in the European Economic Area (EEA).
Apart from that, Payset allows users to send or receive funds to/from more than 180 countries. To find out immediately whether Payset supports transfers to/from a particular country, see our permitted jurisdictions and the list of countries you can send funds to.
Ready for an Account?
Our extensive compliance efforts at Payset put us in good standing — but they also benefit you as a customer. You can rest assured that we provide safe, secure, and reliable service through maximum security and compliance.
With Payset, you can send, receive, and exchange up to 38 currencies in over 180 countries. Enjoy affordable fees, fast transaction times, real-time exchange rates, and more.
