WHAT HAPPENS AT THE START OF THE PROCESS?
The process is simple but varies depending on who and where our prospective client is located.
Sometimes it is very obvious (to us) what we need to collect, and the information we need to gather to satisfy the regulatory compliance requirements of our FCA regulated 'market-makers'(who are the institutions from whom the currency is bought). In other instances, the registration process evolves as we gather more information and detail.
It all starts with us choosing the appropriate 'market-maker' for the brief. And to do that we have to talk with the client (or, initially, their representative).
This is one of the reasons why we will not accept random submissions of our publicly accessible online registrations forms. No application progresses unless our team have assessed both our suitability for the client and their potential compliance with regulations that govern the activities of our market-counter parties.
Usually, the jurisdiction in which the client resides determines which market-maker we opt for because certain Authorised Payment Institutions have licenses to sell, trade and operate in certain global markets and others do not.
Equally, some of our market-makers might not be prepared to work with customers looking to move money in a certain direction, or with (or without) certain hedging requirements.
Our team's initial role is to assess circumstances and to work out which market-maker best achieves the objective in the quickest and most economical manner.
Once we have chosen a market-maker, and we do tell our clients whom we think is best suited to serve as market-maker for their trades (but it won't make any actual difference to the client), we send the applicant a tailored link that takes them straight to the appropriate online registration form.
The form takes only a few minutes to complete.
It can be saved and you can come back to it if you don't have all the information it asks for to hand and you can send a copy of it to someone else for them to add to it if it is a joint application, for instance.
The FCA authorised payment institutions (APIs) we work with (whom we refer to as our 'market-makers' or market-counterparties) all have the same minimum requirements when it comes to verifying the address and identity of an applicant, but, some have additional elements to their registration - we are the ones responsible for telling the client this, so, you only deal with us and your broker at Prime Cap.
Requests for additional information from our market-makers may be issued because they have heightened risk awareness, they deal in other markets that insist on enhanced due diligence (EDD) or they rely on different technology for verification (some might be manual and other use AI, for instance).
We will personally explain what is needed and email or call you to confirm what additional information we need to present to the API in order to progress your registration.
The process of verifying your details and collecting the additional information and the amount of time it takes for each API to satisfy themselves that they have a sufficiently detailed and compliant overview of the clients and their requirements varies from institution to institution and, in fact, from case to case.
We do not register clients with more than one market-maker.
Usually, we aim to have an especially vanilla client registering with our main-stream major currency market-maker registered within 24 hours. This is a guide so we do try not to guarantee this.
One of the main reasons we suggest a client register well before their intended date of exchange is because we want to make allowance for any elongation in the onboarding/registration process.
All the way through the process we try to remind the client of both the reasons why the additional information is necessary (from a regulatory perspective) and from a savings perspective...so if someone is going to save £2000 by waiting a week for us to complete the onboarding, then we are always ready to remind them of that and, when framed so, a week becomes more palatable.
WHAT SORT OF ADDITIONAL INFORMATION MIGHT WE ASK FOR?
As suggested, not all of our market-makers (the regulated institutions tasked with the buying and the selling of the wholesale currencies you are exchanging) have the same expectations when it comes to verification of a client.
They all have the same minimum requirements, but, the stringency with which they are translated and what a client is actually expected 'to do' varies.
By way of an example...
Some market makers can electronically, automatically and immediately verify an identity document (a picture of a passport, a drivers license or a European ID card) when it is uploaded during the registration. Other do not and instead accept a scanned copy. Some market-makers ask for certified copies of ID documents.
All documents relating to an individual applicant need to be dated within the last three months.
For business applicants, there is a tendency to attempt to verify details using publicly available sources. So, whether or not a business has a website is taken into account and can serve to support the case that the business is engaged in a certain industry or activity.
Many currency companies emphasise the speed with which a client might be registered.
We tend not to say it is speedy or instant, but rather that you will be kept informed and that we may need additional information.
We do attempt to make the process as swift as possible, but, Prime Cap works with a number of market-makers and if the price of the far superior rates of exchange we negotiate for our clients is a wait of between a day and a week for the compliance boxed to be 'ticked' then we think it a reasonable trade. The speed with which the client needs to transact is in fact one of the aspects of our initial assessment that informs which market-maker we register the client to.
If you would like to discuss any of the above then please do not hesitate to call us on +44(0)203 4175781.
In the event that we do ask for certified copies of any personal documents, one of the many solicitors we work with on a regular basis (or indeed your own) is well placed to assist with this task.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE REGISTRATION IS COMPLETE?
We will automatically email you with a welcome message and provide you with details of your unique client reference with us. Within the welcome email is an invitation to activate your online Prime Cap platform.
A further explanation may be necessary (from us to you) to explain how to use the online system.
But, from the time the registration is complete you are at liberty to instruct us to buy or sell your currency.
There is no fee to register as a client and no commitment comes into force for the purchase or sale of any currency unless and until you expressly instruct us to carry out your bidding on either a recorded telephone line, via email or over our secure online platform.
We hope this was informative and we look forward to hearing from you once you've made your decision.