Trust & security

We never hold your funds. That's not a policy — it's the architecture.

Modality is a technology layer. Licensed partner institutions hold client funds and run the regulated activity under their own authorisations. Here's exactly how the responsibility is split, and who answers for what.

The four layers

A technology layer. Not a bank, not a broker.

B2B money movement has four layers. Most providers blur them — which is how a platform ends up integrated with a counterparty who also wants your customer. Modality does one layer, and doesn't touch the other three.

Layer 1 · Yours
Your business

Your customers, your brand, your commercial terms, your licence if you hold one.

Layer 2 · Modality
The settlement layer

Accounts, balances, quotes, conversion, routing, settlement, webhooks, and the record of what happened. Software only — we never take custody of your funds.

Layer 3 · Partners
Licensed institutions

Regulated banks, payment institutions and custodians hold and move funds under their own authorisations.

Layer 4 · Rails
Payment networks and chains

Local schemes, correspondent networks, and public blockchains that carry the payment.

The consequence: we cannot compete with you for your customer, because we never hold the relationship or the funds. That's structural, not a clause in a contract.

What we own vs. what partners own

Modality owns

  • Integration — API, dashboard, webhooks, quoting
  • Compliance programme design — KYC/KYB, AML, monitoring, reporting
  • IT security & operational resilience — incident response, continuity
  • The single record — fiat, stablecoin and digital assets in one history

Licensed partners own

  • Custody — client fiat and digital asset funds
  • The regulated activity itself, under their own licences and authorisations
  • Settlement execution on local and correspondent rails
  • The regulatory perimeter — where their licence, not ours, applies

What this means in practice

No. Modality is a technology services provider — not a bank, and not a licensed money transmitter. We do not take custody of client funds. Payment, custody and exchange services are provided by regulated financial institution partners under their own licences and authorisations.

With regulated institutions. We never take custody. You keep the customer relationship and we keep the layer. Because we hold neither the relationship nor the funds, we structurally cannot compete with you for your customer.

We write the policies and stand up the compliance programme — KYC/KYB, AML, monitoring, reporting — and run the day-to-day business operations behind the product. If you're a regulated firm yourself, you act under your own permissions and remain responsible for your customer relationship, onboarding and regulatory obligations.

Security, incident response, continuity and operational resilience are ours to own and answer for at the technology layer — the controls a regulator and an auditor will ask about. Custody-level security controls sit with the licensed partner holding the funds.

No — and we'd rather say so here than have you find out in month three. Coverage is subject to onboarding, eligibility and regulatory review. If a corridor isn't a fit, we tell you honestly on the call.

Ask us anything a security review would ask.

We're early — no public uptime dashboard or named reference customer yet. What we can do is walk your team through the architecture and the partner structure directly, on a call.

Get a demo