FAQ

Yes, we comply with the requirements of the laws of the Republic of Lithuania and at the same time ensure that the provided customer information is confidential and protected in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Lithuania on the legal protection of personal data.

Customers of Clearshift UAB benefit from the special PSD2 client funds safeguard provisions.  Under the safeguard rule, 100% of relevant client e-money balances must be backed by funds held in special safeguard accounts registered with the regulator.  Clearshift complies with this rule, as required, and maintains a safeguard account with the central Bank of Lithuania, which is also the company’s regulator.  The PSD2 safeguard mechanism has proven itself over the last decade to be highly effective in ensuring the safety of client funds at licensed e-Money Institutions like Clearshift.

In 2020, Clearshift obtained an E-Money Institution (EMI) License from the Bank of Lithuania. Pursuant to the European Union’s PSD2 regulation. Thanks to the passporting regime, Clearshift’s license gives it the ability to serve customers throughout the EU.
In the United States, Clearshift is registered with the Department of Treasury as a Money Service Business and is licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New Jersey Department of Banking & Insurance.
In Israel, Clearshift (Israel) Ltd is licensed by the Israeli Ministry of Finance - Capital Markets, Insurance and Savings Authority as a Provider of Regulated Financial Services.

How is data spoofed?

Data theft by e-mail by letter or SMS. A resident or company receives an e-mail or SMS message with an active link and an instruction to connect to electronic banking/ portal. After clicking the provided link, the customer is redirected to a fake banking website or portal, and after entering the login details, gives the fraudsters access to the funds stored in the account. Fake e-banking pages may look similar to real ones at first glance, so to protect yourself from criminals, it is important to note that Clearshift never sends their customers active links to connect to their e-banking/portal.

Fraudulent call. A private or legal person receives a call from a person, usually posing as an information technology specialist, and is persuaded to hand over all control of the computers they use, to reveal legal or private person‘s login details, portal access details and other available financial information.

Identity theft. This crime is often committed by people known to the victims. For example, cohabitants who have every opportunity to find passport data, e-mail logins carelessly stored by another person. After illegally misappropriating this information, malicious people seek financial benefits - they transfer funds belonging to people to accounts or take quick loans on their behalf.

Computer Malware and Viruses. Careless behavior on the Internet can lead to malware infection on a private or company's computer. Malicious systems collect personal data such as email logins to e-banking/portals and transfers the collected information to hired scammers. There are also viruses that take over a computer enabling scammers to make transfers directly from the victim's computer.

How is money scammed?

Redemption of personal data. Malware encrypts information stored on a personal or company's computer, and in some cases, passes it on to fraudsters. Victims who want to regain access to data and to protect it from destruction or disclosure, are required to pay a ransom. The ransom is commonly requested in Bitcoin cryptocurrency.

Investment fraud. In some fraud cases, individuals are persuaded to send money to a certain person or pay an administrative fee to a certain organization. In the first case, the individual is assured that the transferred funds will supposedly help a person in a difficult situation, and in the second case, a large amount of money will be returned for the investments made after some time. But scammers don't follow through on promises to help them get rich.

Services or goods which are not received. Individuals or companies wishing to purchase goods or services are asked to pay for them in advance, but after payment they no longer receive the services. For example, malicious actors targeting individuals create fraudulent vacation rental ads. After the customer transfers the deposit or even the full amount for the rent, the scammer disappears. In some cases, scams only come to light after customers go on vacation to the foreign country where they rented the accommodations.

Fake accounts. This fraud scheme usually targets businesses by sending them invoices for goods or services that the business never purchased. Scammers tend to target large companies, and the bills are usually for relatively small amounts for common items such as office supplies. Since all companies buy them, and the employee making the payments may not know all the processes, such an account may not raise suspicions and be paid.

CEO fraud. The company's accountant receives an e-mail from a fraudster pretending to be a director or other high-ranking person who is usually on vacation at that time. A confidential email tells the accountant to make an urgent order that will determine the success of a large transaction. In order to send a convincing email, the fraudsters often break into the mailbox of the manager, examine the emails written by him in order to send an email written in the same style. In order to put more pressure on the employee, he may even be sent several emails accompanied by phone calls. In order to protect the company's finances from miscreants, employees who receive similar tasks should contact their manager again to check whether it is a fraudulent instruction.

Forgery of the recipient's account. This is a frequently used scheme, usually aimed at business enterprises. The companies receive an email from fraudsters informing them of a change in their business partners' account number and asking them to make further payments to the new account. In order to make everything look convincing, the e-mail accounts of business partners are often "hacked" and these emails might be accompanied by phone calls. The fraud comes to light when business partners start asking about late payments.

Romance scam. Fraudsters create fake profiles on social networks and pretend to be other people. They often operate in groups and have a strong cover system. A scammer's communication is based on psychological aspects to create strong trust. Your meeting or conversation with a scammer takes place on the Internet - on social networks or dating portals. The scammer is very active in communicating with you. His goal is to make you trust him deeply so he can control you. The scammer may ask you to send intimate photos or videos of yourself so that they can blackmail you later. After enough active communication, the scammer turns to you for help. The reason for asking for help can also be your meeting with the scammer - allegedly, in order to come to meet with you, he needs financial support. The scammer may also seek to extract your personal information from you. If you do not agree to give the scammer money, he often starts threatening and demanding. If you break down and still transfer the money, the scammer will almost certainly ask for it again and continue to manipulate you. Be careful when sharing personal information with strangers, especially online. This information can be used to manipulate you. If possible, check the person's background - search for information about them online. If you have even the slightest suspicion about a person's identity, stop communicating with them. Use a secure internet connection when communicating, i.e. .y, avoid using free Wi-Fi networks in coffee shops and other public places to prevent malware from being installed on your device
If you are a victim of fraud, contact the police immediately. If you have made transfers at the request of a fraudster, also notify the bank. Tell the people close to you what has happened to you to protect them from similar situations.
How to recognize the intentions of fraudsters?

Financial institution‘s employees record suspicious orders and inform customers about them, but the first and most important guarantee of security is customer vigilance and knowledge of fraud schemes. It is important to remember that banks, electronic money institutions or any other financial institution‘s staff do not call customers unnecessarily - if you are not communicating with financial institution‘s representatives on a specific issue at that time, they should not call you. In addition, financial institution‘s employees never ask customers to reveal login data, make payments, and do not send active links - in case of need, financial institution‘s customers are requested to log in through the financial institution‘s website/portal.

In order to protect yourself from fraudsters, it is also important to keep your computer's operating system up to date, use an antivirus program, and do not send files or click on links without checking their security. All offers from strangers or people you barely know should be viewed critically, and e-banking/portal logins should be kept in a safe place. It is important for managers of business enterprises to remind their employees to constantly and carefully check accounts payables and to be careful about requests to make certain payments or to change recipient's account number.

You can contact support via email at:

support@clearshiftinc.com
or via phone: +97239155726

Our support hours:
Sundays: 09:00-16:00
Monday-Thursday: 09:00-18:00
Friday: email support till 10:00 am.
All hours are GMT+2 or GMT+3 during daylight-saving time.

After hours, you are welcome to leave a voice message with a callback number or you can send an email to support@clearshift.eu.

Monday-Thursday: 09:00-18:00

Friday: email support only till 10:00.

Sunday: 09:00-16:00

Privacy policy is available here.

Your satisfaction is our priority.  We will try our best to resolve any complaints you might have with us. However, if we cannot resolve your complaint, you can file a formal complaint in accordance with the approved procedure which can be found here. The complaint form can be found here. The handling of customers’ complaints is regulated by the Bank of Lithuania.

A real-time rate is a real-time interdealer mid-rate offered to customers who have an existing exchange order and do not want to wait for the BOI/Siren to publish the next exchange rate.

Any exchange order with the following currency pairs:
ILS- USD
ILS-EUR
EUR-USD  

Please note there is a limit of up to 100K USD and additional conditions apply.

No, Clearshift reserves the right to disable the real-time rate option, though once a real-time rate is applied to an order, it will be honored and executed accordingly.

At this stage, real-time rates are available for existing orders only. This can be done on the orders page on our customer portal.

Yes. 0.1% + VAT for business customers and 0.1% including VAT for individuals in addition to the existing fee.

The request for additional information, sometimes from third parties, arises from the requirement of the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act that financial institutions take appropriate measures to determine the source of funds related to a business relationship or transaction. The origin (source) of funds helps to ensure that the transaction is not related to illegal activities and corresponds to the nature of the client's activity.

This information is evaluated in order to understand the basis of making the payment and the nature of the business relationship between the sender and the recipient of funds, so please avoid ambiguous entries indicating the purpose of the payment, and name the purpose of the payment accurately and clearly.

This depends on the transfer method the sender chose. The sender can get this information from the sending bank. Once we receive and identify the funds, you will receive an email confirmation.

We will provide you with access information once your account is open and approved and if your activity requires use of the customer portal.

A standing instruction allows automatic conversion of any funds received and delivery of the proceeds to your bank account, without the need for entering an order each time funds are received. You can revoke your standing instruction at any time.

Some customers need most of their money right away, and don’t want delivery to be delayed because the rate is not yet published. In those cases, Clearshift offers a
"Split Standing Instruction"- the option of advancing 95% of the estimated amount and receiving your ILS one day early.
Conditions:

• This service is not offered on Sundays (or on any other day that the Bank of Israel does not publish an exchange rate on) , so if funds arrive on Friday after 10:00 AM, the first part of the payment (95%) will only be processed on Monday and will reflect in your bank account on Tuesday.
• This service is only eligible for payments with a value of $10,000 or more and limited to up to $250,000.

You can check your order status on the customer portal. Also, please take a look at the confirmations we send to you via email.

Not necessarily. There may be a delay in the sending of confirmations due to technical issues. Feel free to check your order status on the customer portal if you have any concerns.

Throughout the process, you will receive 4 email confirmations:

• Confirmation of Exchange order – this confirmation displays the details of your order.
• Confirmation of funds received – this confirmation confirms that Clearshift has received your funds and that your Clearshift balance has been credited.
• Confirmation of funds sent – this confirmation confirms that we have sent out your converted funds to the destination bank account.
• Currency exchange transaction confirmation – this confirmation contains a summary of the transaction and includes an invoice for the commission charged.

There are various reasons for delay of funds:

• Holidays in the EU or abroad.
• Days when there are no exchange rates published.
• Weekends.
• Your order may need approval.
• Compliance issues.

The funds usually appear the next banking day after we deliver them.

You will receive a confirmation when we deliver the funds. Please note the funds usually appear in the destination bank account the following banking day.

Once the funds have been exchanged, it takes up to 2 banking days for the funds to be delivered.

An order can be modified till 13:30 (Frankfurt time) on the exchange day.

An order can be canceled till 13:30 (Frankfurt time) on the exchange day. After that, we have already exchanged your funds and your order cannot be cancelled.

Any funds left from the transaction will appear in your balance with Clearshift which can be viewed on the portal.

If you have a standing instruction, we will convert the full amount we receive and deliver it after fee deduction to the destination bank account.

If you need an exact amount in the destination bank account, we advise you to add 2% to that exact amount and then multiply that amount by the current Benchmark interbank mid-rate.  This should assure you will have sufficient funds to cover the requested order amount as well as our fee. Any excess funds left over from the transaction will appear in your balance with Clearshift and may be refunded.

If you set up a  standing instruction, the funds will be handled according to your standing instruction - converted and delivered to your bank account without any need for further action on your part.

If you have already submitted a conversion and/ or payment order on the customer portal, the funds received will be applied to your order, if the currency and originating bank account match the order.

Otherwise, the funds will go directly to your account balance with Clearshift and no action will be taken until you submit an order. Please note, we may restrict the availability of funds received from a third-party bank account if no order is associated with the funds.

Funds received to your unique virtual bank account are automatically associated with and credited to your Clearshift account.

When sending funds to one of Clearshift’s general collection accounts, we will identify the funds by matching the sending bank account details against the bank accounts you have pre-registered to your account.

It is your unique bank account number that we may issue in the name of your Clearshift account for a given currency and/or country. 

We accept bank transfers from pre-approved bank accounts.

• In the U.S. and Europe we will provide you with your own virtual bank account to direct fund transfers to your Clearshift account via domestic bank transfers.
• For other types of transfers, we will provide you with deposit instructions for deposit to a general Clearshift collection bank account.

We commit to keeping you updated throughout the process. We will notify you by email when:

• We have received funds and credited your Clearshift account.
• A new order was initiated in your account.
• We have sent out the converted funds to the destination bank account.

You will also receive a summary of the transaction with an invoice for the fee attached.

On the customer portal you can:

• Place conversion and payment orders;
• Verify orders;
• Update personal information;
• Set up new bank accounts connected to your Clearshift account;
• View your balances;
• View and download your transaction history;
• View your fee invoices;
• Check the status of orders.

You can place an order on our customer portal. The beneficiary and their bank details need to be registered before a payment to them is made.  You will be asked to verify your order through one of our secure verification methods.

We currently support:

• USD
• EUR
• ILS
• GBP
• AUD
• CAD
• CHF
• PLN
• JPY
• CNY
• SEK
• BGN
• RON
• NZD
• HUF
• ZAR

If you have enquiries on other currencies – please contact our Customer Service.

The beneficiary is a natural person who manages the company directly or indirectly and has a sufficient percentage of shares or votes. A natural person who owns 25 percent and one share or more than 25 percent of the client's property is considered a direct owner. An indirect owner is a person who manages a company with 25 percent and one share or more than 25 percent of the client's ownership.

In certain cases, Clearshift identifies all beneficiaries who own 10 percent or more of the client's shares.

In cases where it is not possible to identify natural persons with 25 percent and one share, or more than 25 percent of the client's ownership, the natural person holding the position of a senior manager, usually the head of the company, is determined as the beneficial owner.

Pursuant to Article 9, Article 18 of the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, financial institutions are prohibited from conducting operations, establishing or continuing business relations with a client who does not provide data on the origin of funds (assets), reference data, business relationships with colleagues, information on the company's management structure and real beneficiaries or other values and other important information, does not cover all relevant information, not complete information, or does not contain all relevant data, and no; Article 18 of the same law states that in cases where the customer avoids or refuses to provide additional information at the request of the financial institution and within the established terms, we may refuse to perform monetary operations or transactions, terminate transactions or business relations.

A request to provide additional information or documents is not considered a violation of the regulation, as this is aimed at implementing the principle "Know your customer" and other legal requirements. We are asking for information about the actual beneficiaries, as legal acts oblige you to understand the client's management structure and properly identify the natural persons running the company.

Requesting additional information is routine and may apply to any Clearshift customer. When monitoring transactions, we assess whether the transactions performed are specific to the customer. If discrepancies are found, clarify the information and provide additional documents. Therefore, it is very important to update the Client's profile on time and provide relevant and correct information. In case of significant changes, for example, a change in the company's manager or shareholder, activity (profession), turnover, place of residence (performance of activity), it is necessary to inform about it. Having up-to-date data makes it easier to keep accounts safe and prevent potentially illegal or suspicious activity.

We are required by law to collect information about the nature, purpose, and origin of the business relationship with the customer. Information about the client's accounts in other financial institutions helps to determine which financial transactions are normal for him and which are unusual.

Information about politically vulnerable (affected) persons is collected as required by the Law on Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing of the Republic of Lithuania. The status of a politically vulnerable (affected) person or relationship with such a person does not mean that the account will not be opened or the disposal of Clearshift services will be restricted. This means that we will have to carry out certain additional legal procedures with respect to such a customer.

We request this information in order to understand the customer's activity, the nature of monetary transactions and predict possible financial behavior in the future. This makes it possible to understand which financial transactions are typical of the customer and which can be identified as unusual, thus preventing potential financial crimes and the loss of the customer's funds. If it happens that the planned turnover is significantly different from the real one, we can ask additional questions and ask to update the Customer's profile data.

We would like to emphasize that the collection of this information is not related to the transaction limits set by you.

Since 2014 July 1 the requirements of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA - Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) are applied in Lithuania. For this reason, all financial market participants operating in Lithuania must collect additional information about their customers in order to determine the country of tax payment. When we identify customers who are US taxpayers or potential US taxpayers (US telephone number code, US address), we have the right to ask the customer to confirm that they are a US taxpayer (W-9) or deny it (W-8BEN).

We collect the aforementioned information (including forms) in accordance with the Agreement of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania and the Government of the United States of America on the improvement of the enforcement of international tax obligations and the implementation of the Law on the Enforcement of Tax Obligations Applicable to Foreign Accounts, the order of the head of the State Tax Inspectorate under the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania, the Notification on the Approval of the Rules for Filling out financial statements of foreign countries and the form of the notification on the provision and submission of tax obligations and the legislation of the Republic of Lithuania on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing.

We request this information on the basis of the General Reporting Standard (BRS) and the agreement between the Government of the Republic of Lithuania and the Government of the United States of America "On the Improvement of the Enforcement of International Tax Obligations and the Implementation of the Law on the Enforcement of Tax Obligations Applied to Foreign Accounts" - all financial institutions must collect and verify client/controlling party information about the client/controlling person. s for tax purposes.

More information is available in Lithuanian language here: https://www.vmi.lt/evmi/en/fatca-teisine-baze and here: https://www.vmi.lt/evmi/en/crs-teisine-baze. 

We must collect this information in accordance with international and local laws governing the implementation of the Know Your Customer principle. A customer questionnaire is one way to collect relevant customer data. It is filled out before starting and continuing cooperation with the client. The periodicity of the update depends on various factors, but we will inform you about it when the deadline for updating the questionnaire is approaching.

We would like to emphasize that the practice of collecting information about our clients is not unique to Lithuanian financial institutions, it is a global trend. Collecting relevant customer information helps detect and prevent suspicious account transactions and protect customer funds.

Financial market participants must ensure that, when using their services and systems, financial crimes, identity theft, and the transfer or storage of criminally acquired funds or funds intended to finance criminal activities are not committed. It is also mandatory to comply with international financial sanctions and ensure that they are not violated.

To achieve these goals, we must know our customers, i.e. to understand what they do for a living, what transactions in the bank account and to what extent can be expected and what is the possible source of funds. Having this information makes it easier to spot and prevent suspicious transactions on an account, thereby protecting customer funds and preventing potential financial crimes, money laundering, terrorist financing, or sanctions evasion.

Customers transacting over 500,000 EUR annually are charged our corporate rate of 0.25% of their transaction volume. Lesser volumes and cross-border capital transactions are charged 0.5%.  In any case, there is a minimum fee per transaction of 25 EUR.
For more information regarding our fee structure, click here. 

You must first register the new bank account under your account with Clearshift - this can be done on the customer portal or by contacting Customer Service.

Please write to Customer Service to update the  bank account(s) linked to your account. To approve a new bank account, you may be requested to provide us a bank-issued document.

Please contact our Customer Service to update personal information. We may ask you to verify your identity and provide documents supporting the updated information.

This information is available on the customer portal Transaction menu under reports.  You can download your account statements in Excel format.

This information appears on the customer portal, showing your balance in each currency along with the total value of all your currency balances.

No. We only charge our low, verifiable fee per transaction.

Of course. Your invoice for the fee will be attached to your transaction confirmation.

With a real estate account, your investors can exchange and transfer the investment amount to the project's bank account.  In addition, investors can receive their distributions from the project.

You can accept payments from clients, pay your vendors and exchange and transfer funds between your company's bank accounts.

We use the Siren Benchmark. The next rate to be published is yours. Period. No spread.