How is Vivid Money S.A. regulated and supervised?
Vivid Money S.A. is an electronic money institution authorised and supervised by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), Luxembourg’s financial regulator. That is the same authority that supervises Luxembourgish banks.
Because Vivid is an electronic money institution, the money in your Vivid account is not a deposit at Vivid.. It remains your money, and we are legally required to safeguard it: to hold it entirely separately from our own funds, and never to use it as corporate funds.
Note: Vivid Money S.A manages all funds in money pockets. For funds in Interest, investment and/or crypto related accounts, refer to our article on Vivid Money B.V.
How does Vivid Money S.A. keep my funds safe?
We safeguard 100% of the money in your Vivid account. None of your money is on our own balance sheet and to be used as we please. We safeguard it in two ways, both notified to and reviewed by the CSSF:
Segregated bank accounts. These are held in the name of Vivid Money S.A. on behalf of its customers, are designated as client-money accounts, and are kept entirely apart from our own money.
Units in a qualified money market fund (QMMF) managed by BNP Paribas Asset Management. A QMMF is a tightly regulated fund that may only hold very secure, highly liquid assets such as short-term government debt.
At any given moment the majority of the customers funds are held in the QMMF’s, with a liquidity buffer kept in the segregated bank accounts so that your payments settle immediately.
What is not safeguarded
A small part of the payment journey sits outside these arrangements, and it is fair that you know about it:
Card payments you have authorised. The money leaves your account as soon as the transaction is authorised.
Certain top-ups, such as card top-ups. We may issue e-money to you before we receive the corresponding funds from our payment partner. During this short settlement window the funds are not yet safeguarded by us; they become safeguarded as soon as we receive them.
What would happen if Vivid Money S.A. went bankrupt?
The money in your Vivid account is separate from our own funds, so it would not form part of our liquidation estate. 100% of your funds would be returned to you in full from the safeguarding accounts and QMMF’s, under CSSF supervision.
What would happen if one of our partner banks went bankrupt?
Your money sits in accounts opened in the name of Vivid Money S.A. on behalf of its customers and declared to the bank as client-money accounts.
These are unlikely scenarios, all are substantial, prudentially supervised European institutions. However, if the safeguarding bank itself was to fail, spreading client money across more than one bank or money market fund also means the risk of loss is less.
In addition, funds held in one of our safeguarding banks - Natixis (BPCE group) - are covered by the French deposit guarantee scheme (Fonds de Garantie des Dépôts et de Résolution, FGDR) up to EUR 100,000 per customer. Because the account is a client-money account, the guarantee looks through to each customer individually rather than treating Vivid as a single depositor. This is the same level of protection you would have at any French or European bank.
What if the money market fund ran into trouble?
The fund is a separate legal vehicle. Its assets belong to the fund, not to BNP Paribas Asset Management. If the manager failed, the fund’s assets would not be available to the manager’s creditors.
The units we hold for you sit in a securities account at a custodian. Securities held on behalf of a client do not form part of a failed custodian’s estate; the custodian is obliged to return them.
Market risk is very low but not zero. The fund sits at level 1 of 7 on the Summary Risk Indicator, the lowest category, and may only hold highly secure, highly liquid assets.