What does InsuranceFX do?
We do the comparison, the organising around it and the checking afterwards. Introvisory Ltd makes the introduction. The provider does everything that touches money. Your firm makes every decision.
Most insurance firms have a bank that converts premiums and pays claims, and a finance team with little time to test whether the pricing is fair. InsuranceFX does the part they rarely get to: knowing which providers handle premium receipts, binder remittances and overseas claims well, what a fair markup looks like for your sizes and currencies, and noticing when pricing drifts.
| Activity | InsuranceFX | Introvisory Ltd | The provider | Your firm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Understanding your flows | Asks the questions and writes the requirement | Not involved | Not involved | Explains currencies, sizes, timing, entities and client money position |
| Blind quotes | Sends the requirement without your name and collects the prices | Not involved | Prices the requirement | Reviews the quote table |
| Comparison | Sets prices side by side with markup to mid, charges and cut-offs | Not involved | Not involved | Decides whether to go further |
| Provider facts | Checks and dates FCA status, safeguarding and ownership | Not involved | Answers questions and provides documents | Decides which provider to use |
| Introduction | Prepares it with your agreement | Makes the introduction to the provider you chose | Receives the introduction | Agrees to it first |
| Checks and onboarding | Supports with timings and checklists. Holds no KYC documents | Not involved | Runs its checks directly with your firm | Provides documents to the provider |
| Conversions and payments | Never involved | Never involved | Executes conversions and makes payments | Instructs and approves every payment |
| Safeguarding | Never holds money | Never holds money | Safeguards funds under its FCA authorisation | Keeps control through its own approvals |
| Client money compliance | Never gives a view | Never gives a view | Answers questions about its own service | Decides its position with its compliance officer and CASS auditor |
| Sanctions screening | Not involved | Not involved | Screens the payments it makes | Keeps its own sanctions obligations |
| Rate checks | Measures what you paid and re-quotes your main flows | Not involved | Provides statements | Decides whether anything changes |
Does InsuranceFX hold client money or make payments?
No. InsuranceFX never holds, receives or routes money, never makes payments or conversions and never sends or changes payment details.
Your firm opens its own account with the provider and gives its own instructions. We are not a party to the account and have no access to it. InsuranceFX is not an insurer or an insurance intermediary and does not arrange insurance. If you hold premiums or claims money as client money, our page on client money, CASS 5 and FX sets out the questions for your compliance officer before any new provider is used.
How does InsuranceFX work, step by step?
Eight steps from a first conversation to the yearly check. Your bank stays open throughout and nothing changes until you decide it should.
Tell us about your flows
A short call or the quote form: currencies, typical and largest amounts, how often, which entities pay and receive, the flows involved and your client money position. Premiums, remittances to capacity, reinsurance settlements, claims and captive funding all price differently.
Measure what you pay now
If you want a baseline, a cost review compares each past conversion with the market mid at the time and shows your markup in basis points and in pounds a year.
Blind quotes
We put the requirement to several providers without your firm's name, in the same window so the prices can be compared fairly. How blind quotes work.
Compare side by side
One table with each indicative rate's markup to mid, receiving and payment charges, cut-offs, payment reach and onboarding time. Quotes are indicative until the provider has onboarded your firm.
Check the shortlist
Dated facts on each shortlisted provider: FCA status, how it safeguards, ownership and latest accounts, and its written answers to your compliance officer's questions.
Introduction through Introvisory Ltd
With your agreement, Introvisory Ltd introduces your firm to the provider you chose. Providers you did not choose never learn who asked.
Onboarding and testing
The provider runs its own checks with your firm and opens accounts. Small test payments come first, then one real flow, then the rest. Our staged switching plan works around your settlement calendar.
Ongoing rate checks
We measure what you actually pay and re-quote your main flows on a blind basis once a year, so your provider knows someone is checking.
How do you choose the FX providers on your panel?
Only firms authorised by the FCA as a bank, payment institution, e-money institution or investment firm, and only after we have checked the facts that matter to an insurance business. We will name them once agreements are signed.
- Authorisation type and firm reference number checked on the FCA Register before any introduction, and rechecked at least once a year and on any adverse news.
- A clear written explanation of how customer money is safeguarded, with the name of the safeguarding bank or insurer, or for a bank how deposits are held.
- Ownership and the latest filed accounts reviewed.
- Experience of insurance flows: premiums from many payers with references that reconcile to debit notes, remittances to capacity on binder dates, claims paid abroad in local currency to individuals and businesses, bulk claims payments and confirmations for the claim file.
- Willingness to answer a compliance officer's client money questions about its service, in writing.
- Accounts in your firm's own name with dual approval, user roles and limits.
- A described sanctions screening process for the payments it makes.
- Willingness to price requests blind and to agree confidentiality terms with us that cover every quote request.
- A signed agreement with Introvisory Ltd that sets out how we are paid.
Every check is dated and kept on file. We publish the names of providers on our panel once agreements are signed and each provider has agreed how it is described. Until then we tell you who each provider is when we send your quotes.
Who makes the introduction, and what is Introvisory Ltd?
Introvisory Ltd makes every introduction, for professional clients only. InsuranceFX is a CommercialFX brand, and both are trading names of Introvisory Ltd.
InsuranceFX is a CommercialFX brand. Both are trading names of Introvisory Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 948814). Introducing insurance firms to FX and payment providers for spot currency and payments is not a regulated activity and is not covered by that authorisation. The providers that carry out your conversions and payments are each authorised by the FCA in their own right, and you can check them on the FCA Register.
Professional clients only means the service is for firms: insurers and reinsurers, syndicates and managing agents, MGAs and coverholders, brokers, captives and claims handlers. It is not for consumers or individual policyholders.
The introduction happens only when you ask for it. Until then providers see the requirement and never your firm's name. Full details of our status are on important information, and who runs InsuranceFX is on our about page.
What happens at onboarding with the provider?
The provider runs its own checks directly with your firm and opens accounts in the right entity names. InsuranceFX does not collect or store your KYC documents.
Each provider has its own checklist. For an insurance firm it is likely to cover the constitutional documents of each entity that will hold an account, your FCA Register entry where you are authorised, directors and authorised signatories, beneficial owners above the provider's threshold, the flows and currencies you expect and where the money comes from. Firms that hold client money should expect questions about how it is held. Managing agents and captives may be asked about syndicate or cell structures.
We tell you in advance what each shortlisted provider will ask for and how long onboarding is likely to take for your firm type and domicile, so nothing comes as a surprise after you have chosen. Onboarding usually takes two to six weeks once the provider has a complete set of documents.
Do you keep checking our rates after we switch?
Yes. Every quarter we measure the markup you actually paid from the statements you send us, and once a year we re-quote your main flows blind.
Pricing that starts sharp and widens quietly over time is common enough to have a name. A regular check is the simplest way to stop it, because a provider that knows its pricing will be compared tends to keep it where it was. Our guide to FX rate creep shows how to spot it in your own statements. We also recheck each provider's FCA status and safeguarding arrangements every year, whatever its terms with us.
How is InsuranceFX paid?
By the provider you choose, not by your firm. Our payment comes out of what the provider earns on your conversions.
We tell you the basis before you choose and we show you every quote we receive, including those from providers that would pay us less. If a captive manager or broker referred you to us, what they receive is disclosed too. The full disclosure is on how we are paid.