Exclusive: Australian FX Payments Provider, Unitransact Is Shutting Down
- A possible explanation of banks' fears about compliance with anti money laundering and tax evasion regulations that are tightening worldwide
International Payments Payments One of the bases of mediums of exchange in the modern world, a payment constitutes the transfer of a legal currency or equivalent from one party in exchange for goods or services to another entity. The payments industry has become a fixture of modern commerce, though the players involved and means of exchange have dramatically shifted over time.In particular, a party making a payment is referred to as a payer, with the payee reflecting the individual or entity receiving the payment. Most commonl One of the bases of mediums of exchange in the modern world, a payment constitutes the transfer of a legal currency or equivalent from one party in exchange for goods or services to another entity. The payments industry has become a fixture of modern commerce, though the players involved and means of exchange have dramatically shifted over time.In particular, a party making a payment is referred to as a payer, with the payee reflecting the individual or entity receiving the payment. Most commonl Read this Term provider, Unitransact is completely winding down its business by tomorrow, Finance Magnates has learned. The Unitransact service was used by some financial trading brokers to help clients, mainly in East Asian countries, make deposits into their accounts when other methods were too costly or unavailable.
Founded in 2013, the firm specialised in providing international payment services to high net worth clients, but provided wholesale services to clients of any size. This service encompassed "extremely tight margins on FX conversions" through to the facility to hold multiple currencies in one Multi-Currency Account.
After a Unitransact client and FX professional from Indonesia initially reported the matter, a company representative confirmed to Finance Magnates today that Unitransact was in fact shutting down its business for all customers worldwide.
Unitransact is an Australian Financial Services Licensed institution, regulated by ASIC and by the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC). Despite this, it seems that the firm was not able to maintain its ties with the banking system needed to operate a payments service. The firm did not give any indications as to why the banks cut it off the system. A possible explanation is fears about compliance with anti Money Laundering Money Laundering Money laundering is a blanket term to describe the process by which criminals disguise the original ownership and proceeds of criminal conduct by making such proceeds appear to be derived from a legitimate source.Money laundering is an issue that traverses countless industries and sectors, which includes the financial services space. Though criminal money may be successfully laundered without the assistance of the financial sector, billions of dollars’ worth of criminally derived money are laund Money laundering is a blanket term to describe the process by which criminals disguise the original ownership and proceeds of criminal conduct by making such proceeds appear to be derived from a legitimate source.Money laundering is an issue that traverses countless industries and sectors, which includes the financial services space. Though criminal money may be successfully laundered without the assistance of the financial sector, billions of dollars’ worth of criminally derived money are laund Read this Term and tax evasion regulations that are tightening worldwide.
This is an email Unitransact's clients received yesterday:
"It is with great regret that we inform you that we have been forced to cease our operations. The remittance industry has recently gone through some quite significant changes worldwide, which has caused banks both in Australia and abroad to end their relationships with many companies like ourselves.
In our case, we were given very short notice and thus we request that you withdrawal your funds from our system within the next 2 business days.
Please withdrawal by:
Wiring your funds in any of the supported currencies to a bank account of your preferenceSending a local transfer to an Australian Bank account
Please note that if you haven’t sent your funds out before the 4th of June we will be forced to convert your funds to AUD (Australian Dollars) so that you can withdrawal your funds within the following days.
Please accept our sincere apologies that we are unable to continue servicing your FX needs."
International Payments Payments One of the bases of mediums of exchange in the modern world, a payment constitutes the transfer of a legal currency or equivalent from one party in exchange for goods or services to another entity. The payments industry has become a fixture of modern commerce, though the players involved and means of exchange have dramatically shifted over time.In particular, a party making a payment is referred to as a payer, with the payee reflecting the individual or entity receiving the payment. Most commonl One of the bases of mediums of exchange in the modern world, a payment constitutes the transfer of a legal currency or equivalent from one party in exchange for goods or services to another entity. The payments industry has become a fixture of modern commerce, though the players involved and means of exchange have dramatically shifted over time.In particular, a party making a payment is referred to as a payer, with the payee reflecting the individual or entity receiving the payment. Most commonl Read this Term provider, Unitransact is completely winding down its business by tomorrow, Finance Magnates has learned. The Unitransact service was used by some financial trading brokers to help clients, mainly in East Asian countries, make deposits into their accounts when other methods were too costly or unavailable.
Founded in 2013, the firm specialised in providing international payment services to high net worth clients, but provided wholesale services to clients of any size. This service encompassed "extremely tight margins on FX conversions" through to the facility to hold multiple currencies in one Multi-Currency Account.
After a Unitransact client and FX professional from Indonesia initially reported the matter, a company representative confirmed to Finance Magnates today that Unitransact was in fact shutting down its business for all customers worldwide.
Unitransact is an Australian Financial Services Licensed institution, regulated by ASIC and by the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC). Despite this, it seems that the firm was not able to maintain its ties with the banking system needed to operate a payments service. The firm did not give any indications as to why the banks cut it off the system. A possible explanation is fears about compliance with anti Money Laundering Money Laundering Money laundering is a blanket term to describe the process by which criminals disguise the original ownership and proceeds of criminal conduct by making such proceeds appear to be derived from a legitimate source.Money laundering is an issue that traverses countless industries and sectors, which includes the financial services space. Though criminal money may be successfully laundered without the assistance of the financial sector, billions of dollars’ worth of criminally derived money are laund Money laundering is a blanket term to describe the process by which criminals disguise the original ownership and proceeds of criminal conduct by making such proceeds appear to be derived from a legitimate source.Money laundering is an issue that traverses countless industries and sectors, which includes the financial services space. Though criminal money may be successfully laundered without the assistance of the financial sector, billions of dollars’ worth of criminally derived money are laund Read this Term and tax evasion regulations that are tightening worldwide.
This is an email Unitransact's clients received yesterday:
"It is with great regret that we inform you that we have been forced to cease our operations. The remittance industry has recently gone through some quite significant changes worldwide, which has caused banks both in Australia and abroad to end their relationships with many companies like ourselves.
In our case, we were given very short notice and thus we request that you withdrawal your funds from our system within the next 2 business days.
Please withdrawal by:
Wiring your funds in any of the supported currencies to a bank account of your preferenceSending a local transfer to an Australian Bank account
Please note that if you haven’t sent your funds out before the 4th of June we will be forced to convert your funds to AUD (Australian Dollars) so that you can withdrawal your funds within the following days.
Please accept our sincere apologies that we are unable to continue servicing your FX needs."