Is Regency FX Safe?

Company size:

Regency FX is a micro currency broker, run by a small team based in Cornwall, UK. Describing itself as a progressive currency exchange company offering bank beating exchange rates, Regency FX offers a lean and focused service that is very much focused around being a traditional currency brokerage. The products they offer include Spot Contracts, Forward Contracts, Limit Orders, Regular Overseas Payments, Market Watch, and Rate Alerts. For those local to their offices, Regency FX welcomes their customers to meet and discuss their requirements in person, whilst still striving to provide the same first-class services to their clients online or over the phone.

As is somewhat common for currency brokers of this size, such as CurrencyWave and Spartan FX, Regency FX is also powered by Currency Cloud, a fintech powerhouse that provides international payment technology to financial services companies and banks. Leveraging the onboarding process and trading platform of a major B2B technology provider like Currency Cloud, not only instals confidence in Regency FX customers but also allows the company to consistently provide smooth and efficient foreign exchange services.

Incorporated in 2020, Regency FX launched with its offices based in Truro, a relatively small city based in Cornwall. This appears to be at least somewhat intentional as on their website, they claim that by not being based in a major city they can pass on additional savings to their clients. Co-founder and Director Andy Dyer had more than a decade’s experience in financial services before starting Regency FX, including prestigious roles such as Head of Trading and Associate Director. Perhaps most notably was a 4 year stint as Head of Corporate Foreign Exchange at industry veteran and MTC top ranked TorFX, who also happen to be based in Cornwall. Andy is also a Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment with a background education in Law.

Aside from Andy, Regency FX is seemingly a small but growing organisation, with a current total of 7 employees listed on LinkedIn, recently adding a Head of Partnerships and Digital Marketing Manager to the team in the last two months. Choosing the services of a company this size comes with both benefits and potential points of concern. A huge advantage of working with a small dedicated team is that you’re likely to receive at least some level of support from the team’s most senior members, which in the case of Regency FX have a combined 75 years’ worth of experience. They even go as far to claim that all transfers are managed by the company’s Director of Trading. In the same vein, this is also a potential cause for concern as this promise and level of service will likely be harder to maintain if the company experiences significant growth.

Whilst not likely to present any significant risk to its clients, it’s still worth explaining that Regency FX themselves hold very little capital, as they’re not directly registered with the FCA. Instead, prospective clients send their funds to one of Regency FX’s two payment providers, Currency Cloud and Sciopay Ltd, meaning that depending on the service, balances are held and therefore belong to Regency FX’s payment partners and their banking providers.

Regulated by:

✓  FCA, via Currency Cloud Limited (FRN: 900199) – UK

✓ FCA via Sciopay Ltd (FRN: 927951) – UK

✓ DNB via Currency Cloud Limited (R142701) – EU

✓ Community Federal Savings Bank / Currency Cloud Limited – US

Awards:

N/A

Conclusion:

Regency FX is a small, dedicated currency transfer service that joins the more established providers TorFX and Key Currency in being based in Cornwall. By opting against an expensive London office, the idea is they can pass the savings they make on to customers. The company size could be seen as both advantageous or a potential hurdle depending on the customer, as some may opt to pass on working with a more reputable name in the industry such as Currencies Direct, in hopes of having direct access to more senior staff.

It’s important to note that when using Regency FX’s services, all client onboarding, transactional monitoring and compliance services are actually provided by The Currency Cloud Ltd. And it’s Currency Cloud who actually processes client payments and moves money from point A to point B. Operationally, this could cause friction with some customers as they aren’t speaking to the end company who has the licence to process the international payment. Some dynamics would have to be explained. For example, would a Power of Attorney be required for a Regency FX account manager to follow client instructions and book trades over the phone. This customer concern can of course be mitigated, depending on how well the relationship is managed and providing these sorts of details are presented up front and explained in detail. The big advantage is that Currency Cloud is such a reputable firm in the fintech space.

Less can be said however for Regency FX’s other payment provider, Sciopay Ltd, as there is very little public information available to assess their reliability. They too, are a company in their infancy, registering in 2019 with 3 fairly young directors. To their credit, they are all ex-employees of Currency Cloud who have all spent their whole career in financial services, although we’d certainly advise that all prospective clients of Regency FX take due diligence in understanding how Sciopay and Currency Cloud both fit into the picture for their own payments.

Regency FX Client Reviews

Research:

Given how small of a currency transfer service Regency FX is, in addition to the fact that they’ve only been operating for less than two years, it’s not overly surprising that they don’t have a huge number of online reviews. Seeing as there is not a Regency FX app, our only trusted source of validated Regency FX reviews is TrustPilot, where across 41 reviews they’ve received solely 5 stars and a TrustPilot rating of 4.8. It’s the small number of Regency FX reviews on TrustPilot which lowers their score from being a perfect 5 / 5.

Whilst harder to verify, it is worth noting Regency FX also has 5 star ratings across both Facebook (11 reviews) and Google (18 reviews), which will help to boost customer confidence and improve their online profile given they have an untarnished 5 star rating across all online platforms.

100% of verifiable Regency FX reviews have been rated excellent, with customers praising the currency transfer service for:

• Great rates
• Personable service
• Friendly and informative account managers
• Responsive and communicative throughout the entire process

Based on the limited number of available Regency FX reviews, there are currently no negative comments or mentions of areas for improvement.

Conclusion:

Despite a limited number of reviews online, Regency FX is undeniably off to a positive start. It’s good to see that they’ve opted to join TrustPilot, to give sceptical customers a platform to review unbiased, verifiable reviews of the service, rather than having to rely on social or search engine reviews, where customers are often invited or incentivised to write favourably.

There’s a clear theme in the positive comments that relate to the personable, informative and friendly service that clients are receiving, therefore Regency FX is currently reaping the rewards of being a smaller operation that can overdeliver for their customers.

Whilst we certainly can’t point to any negative or concerning customer comments (there aren’t any), it’s still a little too soon for us to confidently rate Regency FX’s credibility given such a small number of total reviews. Certainly when compare Regency FX reviews to some of the larger and highly trusted companies that offer the same services to the same target market, such as TorFX, whose TrustPilot reviews exceed 5,000.

Regency FX Rates & Fees

Fees:

Regency FX does not charge any fees for personal customers. The same is not stated on their business page, so it’s likely a negotiable  payment fee is charged for business customers, based on the number of payments they make and the size of their transfers.

Exchange Rates:

There is very little public information about Regency FX’s exchange rates. Given they do not offer any live spot calculator on their website, nor do they have an app, we are limited to Regency FX’s claims of offering personal customers ‘bank beating rates at a fraction of the cost of high street banks’. Regency FX offers all customers a free same-day quote, but this is gated behind a basic application form that requires the prospective customer’s email address and details of their intended payment/transfer.

The company operates just like other currency brokers, which means they do not have fixed margins and clients sending larger volumes will receive better FX rates.

Whilst not related specifically to the offered exchange rate or spread, Regency FX does offer several services that help their customers make their exchanges at their desired rate, including forward contracts, limit orders and rate alerts.

Limits:

Somewhat disappointingly, Regency FX lacks a Frequently Asked Questions section on their website, which often helps to shed light on important information such as transfer limits to potential customers during their decision making process. From our research, we have not found any information on upper limits, nor any mention of a minimum transfer limit, as is generally the case with most currency brokers.

On the quote form, the lowest value in the ‘amount’ field simply says ‘<£5,000’ which suggests smaller transfers are possible.

Conclusion:

Regency FX does a good job of separating its value proposition between personal and business, making it clear to prospective customers that its zero fee offering is for personal users only. This is consistent with what many other currency brokers offer, however even the fees that businesses are required to pay are often low and far smaller than what would be offered by a bank.

Sadly this is where the transparency and clarity on exchanges and fees end for Regency FX. For more information, users will have to enquire directly to Regency FX by phone or using the contact form on their website for a free quote. Once registered, the FX rate is likely to have moved by that point as well.

Global Reach & Services

Research:

• Dedicated Dealer: Yes
• Offices: Cornwall, UK
• Ways to approach: Email, Telephone (Mon – Fri 08:30 – 17:30) & in person
• Translations: NO
• Accepts clients: UK, EU and US
• Currencies Handled: 37 currencies
• Client reviews: Limited but solely positive

Conclusion:

As Regency FX benefits from the regulatory status held by Currency Cloud, they are able to accept clients from the UK, EU and even the US. Based on their current online reviews, it appears the majority of their customer base is in the UK, with a couple of reviews from EU-based customers, suggesting they are benefiting at least somewhat from Currency Cloud’s footprint.

However, at least for the time being, scaling to a company with multiple branches and an overseas focus does not appear to be part of Regency FX’s short term growth plans. This helps to provide perspective between micro currency brokers versus some of the most international brokers, for example, Global Reach, who have offices in the UK, South Africa, Cyprus, Netherlands, Spain, and Canada.

Additional Functionalities

• Spot Contracts
• Forward Contracts
• Limit Orders
• Rate Alerts

For Business:  Yes – Regency FX offers its services to both personal and business users.

App: No

Conclusion:

Not having an app is a possible deterrent for personal users, however, to help combat this possible disadvantage, Regency FX does have a personal portal that registered users can log into via an internet browser, where they’re able to monitor the status of transfers and also transfer money themselves 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Those with a strong preference for using a provider with an app offering can choose from a wide selection of our best international money transfer apps.

All other FX services and hedging tools offered by Regency FX are what we’d consider fairly standard from a currency broker. To be fair, the currency hedging tools made available by Regency FX are all that can be offered under an electronic money licence (which Currency Cloud holds) and only brokers with a separately regulated investment subsidiary can offer more extensive hedging solutions (namely moneycorp and Global Reach).

There’s nothing to highlight as particularly unique but it’s good to see there are no glaring holes in Regency FX’s offering. Ultimately, it comes down to the quality of the staff to understand its customers currency exposure and then recommend a bespoke hedging solution that will work for them.