What is a Source of Funds check and how does it affect me?

Academy · 16 August 2018Rob Braileanu

Source of funds checks are very important but a few people are aware of them. The ability to send money for free, virtually anywhere in the world is what helped us grow to over 2.5m users in less than 3 years.

But with more than $2b passing through Revolut each month, how can you tell clean money from dirty money?

It’s no secret that Revolut is committed to stopping financial crime at every opportunity and one of the ways in which we do this is by following the money trail.

While it’s relatively easy to see where the money goes to once it leaves Revolut, uncovering where the money comes from before it reaches us is a completely different story - and this is where a 'Source of Funds’ check comes in handy!

So, what actually is a Source of Funds check and why is it important? 🤷‍♂️

Source of funds meaning: Don’t be put off by the legal jargon - a 'source of funds check’ (SOF) is actually just a fancy way of asking you to send us some form of proof, to show that your hard earned cash comes from a legitimate source - be it from your salary, profits earned from your business, a loan from the bank and so on.

When it comes to knowing where your money came from, we promise we're not acting like 'big brother' just for the sake of it! Understanding the source of our users' funds is important for a number of reasons:

To verify that the transactions made were actually completed by you;

To protect our 2.5m+ users and their funds from fraud, or from being linked to illegal activities;

To comply with the relevant laws and regulations that allow us to operate as a financial company;

How and when does Revolut check my Source of Funds? 🤔

At Revolut, checking the source of our clients' funds is handled by the compliance department - the team responsible for tackling financial crime and making sure we comply with the relevant laws and regulations.

And since we’re a technology company, we use automated systems to work out when or if a Source of Funds verification is required. This can vary from user to user depending on many different factors (which we can’t disclose for obvious reasons) and means that you don’t need to do anything just yet.

We’ll send you a notification whenever we need to see any proof of your Source of Funds. When you receive it, you can provide SOF in the form of an official document that clearly shows the origin of your funds. This could be a copy of your recent payslips, documents showing the sale of personal assets (car, house, etc.), a loan agreement and more.

And of course, if you have any questions about what type of documents you need to submit, our compliance and support teams are there to help.

Ok, but is there anything I need to watch out for? 🔎

Usually, you don’t need to worry too much about these things because like we said, we’ll let you know whenever you need to provide us with Source of Funds documents.

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