Safeguarding of funds

What safeguarding means

Your BitriPay balance is electronic money. The money behind it does not belong to us and is not used to run the business. It is held in safeguarding accounts at a credit institution, kept separate from BitriPay's own funds, so that if BitriPay were to become insolvent the safeguarded funds are returned to customers ahead of other creditors.

The rule we live by

Issued e-money can never exceed the cleared funds in the safeguarding accounts, less redemptions in progress and reserved exposure. This rule is enforced inside our ledger: an administrator cannot create a balance without a confirmed, independently checked reserve, and every issuance is recorded in an immutable register.

Daily reconciliation

Every day we compare total customer balances with the safeguarded funds. If the two ever fail to match, issuance is suspended automatically until the difference is explained and corrected, and the incident is reported to the regulator where required.

Money in transit

When you fund a payment by card, the card processor holds the money until it settles to the safeguarding account; the app shows the transfer as "funding pending" until then. When we prefund a local payout account (for example a mobile-money merchant line in the destination country), that money leaves the safeguarding account only to pay out to recipients, and the float is reconciled against the operator's statements.

What is not safeguarded

Promotional credit (it is not money) and sandbox balances (they have no value). Balances held with a partner issuer are safeguarded by that issuer under its own authorisation, and the app tells you who the issuer is.

Where to check

The Regulatory information page lists the safeguarding institution for each currency. Your statement shows your balance type on every page.