23 Feb 2024
Millions of people from developing countries travel to developed nations to find reasonable and sustainable means of earning to support their families back home through several global money transfer service providers.
Gone are the days when you would resort to archaic and conventional ways of transferring funds. Now, you can send money across borders instantly, making it easy for over 281 million global migrants to transfer funds swiftly and safely.
But imagine if the service providers you choose to transfer funds were not regulated by any government bodies like the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Would you choose any of them if you knew they do not operate under the ambit of FCA?
Remember that the matter involves your hard-earned money whose safety and safe delivery to the intended beneficiary takes precedence over all else. Won’t you agree?
Therefore, you must understand the FCA and how it controls the global remittance transfer service providers.
Let’s step ahead to unpack it all!
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a government agency that operates independently and is mandated to oversee the UK’s financial industry. The FCA was established on April 1, 2013, to regulate the financial services and markets to ensure financial risks are mitigated and that all the financial markets function safely for businesses and consumers alike.
Owing to its robust economy and expansive and thriving job market, the UK is a top destination for job-seeking migrants worldwide. Not only is the country’s economy a strong pull, but the UK also offers the best quality education to students from developing countries, where a high-quality education is either non-existent or unaffordable.
Due to these factors, millions of migrants choose the UK for work and education. It has made the UK’s financial landscape complex and complicated.
When you go to the UK to earn a living, you send money online back home to offer financial support. Right? For this, you need financial institutions whose demand birthed many such institutions – some unscrupulous also to fleece people – to cater to the financial needs of the migrants and locals.
Leaving these institutions could have been risky for migrants. Therefore, the UK government established the FCA to regulate the UK’s complex financial landscape.
Let’s now look at some of the key responsibilities of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
You cannot limit the role of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to a few responsibilities only because the regulatory body is broadly responsible for overseeing the financial market and serves as a watchdog against money laundering.
However, some of the key responsibilities of the FCA are discussed below.
The FCA is responsible for regulating the conduct of financial institutions with particular emphasis on online money transfer service providers so that they meet the set standards and follow the rules. The FCA strictly monitors their services and products to ensure compliance.
Another key responsibility of the FCA is to protect consumers from fraud and scams. In so doing, the FCA ensures that financial institutions treat their customers fairly and get transparent and accurate information about the financial services and products they want to have.
The FCA is also responsible for ensuring market integrity by strictly supervising market activities. For example, market abuse, insider trading, and other such activities can undermine the confidence of both the market and the consumer. FCA prevents it proactively.
Healthy competition in a financial market has several benefits. For one, healthy competition in a market benefits the market itself and also the consumers. The FCA, therefore, is responsible for ensuring that there is healthy competition in the financial markets.
The FCA is not only mandated to play a supervisory role in the financial markets, but it also has the authority to enforce rules and regulations on the concerned financial institutions. If the FCA finds a financial institution to be breaching the rules, it can impose fines or sanctions on it.
Financial institutions offering money transfer services need to be regulated strictly and tightly because if not, they can fleece you. The presence of millions of migrants in the UK makes it essential for the FCA to regulate the flow and movement of remittances because, in the remittance industry, the areas to fleece are more than in other financial services.
Some of these areas are listed below:
Let’s now look at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) role.
As mentioned earlier, the responsibilities of the FCA are fairly vast and encompass almost all the financial areas, including remittances and the consumers of the financial markets. The FCA is also mandated to conduct the following activities.
The lack of regulation these can lead to several online scams and frauds.
Remember that you travel to foreign countries to earn a living to support your family financially back home. In this scenario, the following few practices will help you get the best deals on your international money transfers.
Regardless of which service provider you choose for your money transfers, you must check their fee structure. Always remember that a fair company will offer a transparent fee structure and will never hesitate to share details.
Never hesitate to ask about how a service provider offers you currency exchange rates. Banks normally offer a static and fixed rate, which can throw your financials and transactions into disequilibrium. Ensure that the rates you get are live and flexible.
A service provider adhering to the FCA regulations will manifest doing so in the services they offer. Ascertain details about your service provider’s affiliations and which regulations they operate under.
A service provider charging you hidden fees and huge currency conversion charges is surely not operating under the ambit of the FCA. If you find one such service provider, make sure you stay away from them and report them to the concerned quarters if possible.
Your money transfers to your family from abroad with ACE Money Transfer is the best bet you can make for international money transfers. The firm ensures strict and seamless adherence to the FCA regulations and makes changes according to the evolving policies and regulations.
The firm also offers you speed, safety, a wider network and 24/7 service availability in over 100 countries worldwide with live and market-competitive currency exchange rates and much more in exchange for a low fee, which is applicable only if the amount being transferred reaches a certain level below which your transfers will likely remain fee free.
Driven by poverty and unemployment, millions migrate from developing to developed countries to find better and sustainable employment opportunities to support their families. In 2020, the total number of global migrants was over 281 million.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a government body in the UK, but it operates independently and is mandated to oversee the UK's financial market. It was established in April 2013 to ensure consumer protection and mitigate financial risks in the market.
The FCA was established to oversee the UK's complex and complicated financial market because millions of migrants travel to the UK for employment and education and have different financial needs. The FCA is mandated to ensure consumer protection and fraud prevention.
Some of the key responsibilities of the FCA are to supervise and regulate, and protect consumers of financial markets, market integrity, regulation of remittances, market competition, and regulatory enforcement of the institutions that do not comply.
The FCA ensures that the consumers are safe and protected, enhancing the integrity of the UK’s financial markets, promoting effective competition, monitoring companies and individuals, fair treatment of customers, and imposing fines and penalties.
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