What is a Source of wealth (SOW) check and why do I need to provide this?
A source of wealth check is us requesting evidence to support your total net worth. It’s rare that we need to ask for this, but if we do please rest assured that we do so only because it is a requirement that we must follow by law. This is not the same as a source of funds check.
Why am I being asked to prove my source of wealth?
When customers are trading high volumes, or making very large transactions. A simple source of funds check might not suffice to ensure we are compliant under anti money-laundering laws. In these instances we may ask you to pass a source of wealth (SOW) check. This is something we are required to ask for by law, to ensure that we only allow trusted customers to trade on our platform. You may be asked to prove both your source of funds and your source of wealth before we are able to process your transaction. This is routine, and our compliance team carries out thousands of these checks yearly.
How is the source of wealth request different from the source of funds request?
Source of wealth and source of funds are different but often come hand in hand. When we ask you to provide source of funds, we are looking to see where the funds used for your transaction have come from. When we ask you to provide source of wealth evidence, we are looking to see how you acquired those funds to begin with. Both of these checks are important and are things we must ask for under anti money laundering laws.
What does this mean for me as a customer?
This means that you will need to pass a source of wealth check before we are able to process your transaction. Although this can be a little inconvenient, it's important to remember that this is a critical part of safeguarding our customers and our business from fraud and money laundering. If you are asked for source of wealth documentation please rest assured that our compliance team are simply following the laws required. We also understand that this data is sensitive to our customer and as such we will handle your data in a considerate and secure manner at all times.
We are online to support you with any questions you might have. Once your source of wealth checks have been satisfied we will be able to process any pending transactions you may have.
What type of evidence can I provide during my source of funds check?
Source of wealth documents are anything that proves how your net-worth was obtained. This could be:
- Inheritance documents
- Investment history showing dividends or sales of stocks/assets
- Ownership documents for a profitable business
- Employment history showing bonuses or salaries.
What if I can't provide a source of wealth?
If you have been asked to provide source of wealth documentation and are struggling to do so, we would encourage you to be as transparent as possible with our compliance team who can guide you through the process and hopefully avoid the need to suspend your account with us.
As these checks are required under law, If you are unable or unwilling to provide source of wealth documents, our compliance team will carry out an internal review and decide on the most appropriate next steps. This may take some time so please be patient with us.