Bank or payment institution: checking a licence in one minute, and comparing two currency offers
The question arises when the price must be converted, and it is badly decided when you do not know what a payment institution is. It is not an informal intermediary: it is a regulated category, with a licence, a supervisor and an obligation to safeguard its clients’ funds. This dossier says how to check one in a minute, what separates the three possible routes and how to compare two offers.
By Jean Mascla, founder of Home SelectUpdated · 5 min read
What a payment institution is
It is authorised by a national supervisor under the second European payment services directive, and it operates across the Union by passporting. It takes no deposits and lends nothing: it executes payment transactions, which includes conversion and transfer.
In exchange for that narrower scope, article L522-17 of the Monetary and Financial Code imposes segregation: client funds are held on an account separate from its own. Your euros do not mix with its cash and do not share its fate in difficulty.
That is the central guarantee, and the only one you really need to verify.
The check, in one minute
The national supervisor keeps a public register, searchable online and free of charge: in France, it is the ACPR’s REGAFI register. You look up the provider’s exact corporate name, not its trading name, and read three things: the authorisation category, the date obtained, and the countries where it operates by European passporting.
A provider not listed there is not authorised, whatever the quality of its website and whatever logos appear in the footer. On a six-figure sum, that is a minute well spent.
What really separates the three routes
Your home bank has the most complete licence and the least favourable exchange margin, almost always. It is the simple route, and it costs.
An unauthorised intermediary has no licence, no segregation and no remedy. It shows on the register, or rather it does not.
The one question that compares two offers
The only useful question mentions neither fees nor commissions, and it is asked to both providers in the same minute: how many euros will I receive exactly for this amount in my currency?
That single figure contains everything, margin included. Comparing fee schedules leads nowhere, since the main cost, the margin taken on the rate, appears on no line. And comparing two rates quoted at different hours compares nothing: fifteen minutes is enough to make two quotes incomparable.
On a property price, the margin is negotiable. Ask explicitly: it is a large amount, and providers know it.
Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer, Provence
What neither will lift
Two constraints do not depend on your choice and are prepared either way.
Identity and source-of-funds checks bind everyone, bank and payment institution alike, and they lengthen on large amounts from far away. Open the accounts from the signing of the preliminary contract, never after.
And on the day of the transfer to the notary’s practice, vigilance bears on an entirely different risk, this one irreversible: bank-details fraud targets foreign buyers precisely, who have never met their contact.
What the provider will ask for at opening
Bank or payment institution, opening a currency account follows the same path: an identity document, recent proof of address and, for the amounts of a property purchase, the source of funds and the purpose of the transfer. The signed preliminary contract serves exactly that purpose: it explains why a six-figure sum is about to move into euros.
Prepare these documents once, in the same version as the one given to the notaire and the lending bank. A provider that receives a consistent file processes it within a few days; a file that contradicts itself from one party to another triggers further questions, just when the deed’s calendar leaves no room.
What Home Select organises for your currency exchange
Financing is prepared before the search. From the first meeting, your Home Select property finder puts you in touch with a broker used to non-residents, so that your offer arrives financed and the bank’s calendar fits within that of the preliminary contract.
Bank, currency, paperwork: we introduce the partners who handle these subjects every week, and we make sure the bank, the notaire and the currency provider receive the same documents. Each acts under their own responsibility; our role is that nothing is missing on the day the money must move.
Frequently asked questions
Is a payment institution as safe as a bank?
It follows a different regime, which is worth understanding rather than fearing. It takes no deposits and lends nothing: it executes payment transactions. In exchange, article L522-17 of the Monetary and Financial Code requires it to hold client funds on an account separate from its own. Your money therefore does not mix with its cash and does not share its fate in difficulty.
How do you check that a provider is authorised?
On the public register kept by the national supervisor, searchable online and free of charge. You look up the exact corporate name, and check the authorisation category as well as the countries where it operates by European passporting. That check takes a minute and it is the only one that really counts on a six-figure sum.
Should you compare fee schedules?
No, that leads nowhere, because most of the cost is not on them: it sits in the margin taken on the rate. One question compares two offers, asked to both in the same minute: how many euros will I receive exactly for this amount in my currency? That single figure contains everything, margin included.
What is a payment institution?
It is authorised by a national supervisor under the second European payment services directive, and it operates across the Union by passporting. It takes no deposits and lends nothing: it executes payment transactions, which includes conversion and transfer.
Bank, payment institution or intermediary: what is the difference?
Your home bank has the most complete licence and the least favourable exchange margin, almost always. It is the simple route, and it costs. A specialist payment institution has a finer margin and gives access to tools a bank does not offer retail clients, notably the forward contract that locks a rate for a future conversion.
How do you compare two currency offers?
The only useful question mentions neither fees nor commissions, and it is asked to both providers in the same minute: how many euros will I receive exactly for this amount in my currency? That single figure contains everything, margin included. Comparing fee schedules leads nowhere, since the main cost, the margin taken on the rate, appears on no line. And comparing two rates quoted at different hours compares nothing: fifteen minutes is enough to make two quotes incomparable.
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