How is my money protected / safeguarded? 🇬🇧
The Emma app can help across different areas of your personal finances. You can use Emma to set more money aside, budget your spending and savings or manage your investments.
Each of these offerings represents different financial products, and each of them comes with specific regulations designed to help if something goes wrong.
We take security seriously. We support face/fingerprint recognition, use 256-bit TLS encryption and access to any funds or the app requires 2FA. You can read more about how we keep the app safe here.
When we talk about protecting your money, what we mean is, if something happens to one of our providers, banks, or Emma you can still get your money and savings back safely.
There are plenty of banks and money-saving apps out there, and we can’t advise you where the best place is for your money. But, we'll explain how your deposits, savings and investment are protected with the Emma.
The default area of your Emma account is the Emma Wallet. Any money you deposit from your bank will land here as e-money (electronic money) unless you have Autosaves set up to deposit into an Easy Access Pot.
E-money is stored in a digital wallet, and unlike money saved in a bank account, it can’t be lent from one person to another.
Your Emma Wallet is operated and maintained by our EMI provider(s), who is obliged to protect your money through Safeguarding. They do this by placing it into a separate, segregated bank account, where it is pooled with money belonging to other Emma and the EMI provider(s) customers.
These safeguarding accounts are protected by law, so other creditors of a failed e-money institution can’t make a claim against them. In practice, this means if our EMI provider(s) were to fail, it should have enough money in its safeguarding account to pay all customers the money they are owed.
Of course, for safeguarding to protect you, the e-money provider must honour their safeguarding obligations, by ensuring that there is enough money in its safeguarding account to repay all customers.
In the event that anything were to happen to our EMI provider(s) an independent insolvency administrator would be appointed to manage the closure of the business and distribute cash held back to customers.
Any money belonging to Emma customers can only be paid out from the pooled, safeguarding account after insolvency costs have been settled.
Unlike a bank, where eligible customers are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), any money not returned through an administration process would be lost.
It is important to note that while E-money is regulated by the FCA, it is not subject to the same level of regulatory and prudential requirements as banking, such as firms having to hold as much extra money to help them if they fail, funds being regarded as ‘client money’, or being subject to the FCA’s Client Money & Assets (‘CASS’) rules.
This is why, here at Emma, we pick our providers very carefully, and will only work with reputable companies who have a proven track record and are able to assure compliance with the FCA’s safeguarding rules.
If you would like to earn a return on your money, but without the risks of investing, you can create an Easy Access or 45 Day Notice Pot.
These Pots are available for all customers, but we’ve reserved our best interest rate for our Plus, Pro and Ultimate subscribers.
Money saved with Emma in these Pots is held with a UK Bank. Unlike your Emma Wallet, money saved in an Easy Access or 45 Day Notice Pot is protected by the Financial Services Competition Scheme (FSCS).
Each of these offerings represents different financial products, and each of them comes with specific regulations designed to help if something goes wrong.
What does protecting your money mean?
We take security seriously. We support face/fingerprint recognition, use 256-bit TLS encryption and access to any funds or the app requires 2FA. You can read more about how we keep the app safe here.
When we talk about protecting your money, what we mean is, if something happens to one of our providers, banks, or Emma you can still get your money and savings back safely.
There are plenty of banks and money-saving apps out there, and we can’t advise you where the best place is for your money. But, we'll explain how your deposits, savings and investment are protected with the Emma.
How money in your Emma Wallet is protected (excluding Easy Access/ 45 Day Notice Pots)
The default area of your Emma account is the Emma Wallet. Any money you deposit from your bank will land here as e-money (electronic money) unless you have Autosaves set up to deposit into an Easy Access Pot.
E-money is stored in a digital wallet, and unlike money saved in a bank account, it can’t be lent from one person to another.
Your Emma Wallet is operated and maintained by our EMI provider(s), who is obliged to protect your money through Safeguarding. They do this by placing it into a separate, segregated bank account, where it is pooled with money belonging to other Emma and the EMI provider(s) customers.
These safeguarding accounts are protected by law, so other creditors of a failed e-money institution can’t make a claim against them. In practice, this means if our EMI provider(s) were to fail, it should have enough money in its safeguarding account to pay all customers the money they are owed.
Of course, for safeguarding to protect you, the e-money provider must honour their safeguarding obligations, by ensuring that there is enough money in its safeguarding account to repay all customers.
In the event that anything were to happen to our EMI provider(s) an independent insolvency administrator would be appointed to manage the closure of the business and distribute cash held back to customers.
Any money belonging to Emma customers can only be paid out from the pooled, safeguarding account after insolvency costs have been settled.
Unlike a bank, where eligible customers are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), any money not returned through an administration process would be lost.
It is important to note that while E-money is regulated by the FCA, it is not subject to the same level of regulatory and prudential requirements as banking, such as firms having to hold as much extra money to help them if they fail, funds being regarded as ‘client money’, or being subject to the FCA’s Client Money & Assets (‘CASS’) rules.
This is why, here at Emma, we pick our providers very carefully, and will only work with reputable companies who have a proven track record and are able to assure compliance with the FCA’s safeguarding rules.
How money in your Easy Access/ 45 Day Notice Pots is protected
If you would like to earn a return on your money, but without the risks of investing, you can create an Easy Access or 45 Day Notice Pot.
These Pots are available for all customers, but we’ve reserved our best interest rate for our Plus, Pro and Ultimate subscribers.
Money saved with Emma in these Pots is held with a UK Bank. Unlike your Emma Wallet, money saved in an Easy Access or 45 Day Notice Pot is protected by the Financial Services Competition Scheme (FSCS).
Updated on: 12/12/2024
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