Oxbury Bank- Fake or Fortune?

Mikeneale

I opened an account for a one year bond based on MSE’s recommendation. However, when I tried to transfer money from my current account, I could not get a match when validating the account references.
Is this firm kosher or a scam?

Band7

Presumably you are talking about Confirmation Of Payee? Presently, only a handful of banks are participating, and Oxbury are probably not one of them. 

You can usually send a £1 test payment, using the exact details the recipient bank have given you. Once this has arrived, you can safely use the payee information for larger transfers.

TheBanker

They are FCA regulated, so as long as you used the genuine website you should be ok.

https://register.fca.org.uk/s/firm?id=0010X00004OLLW2QAP

They may not be part of Confirmation of Payee which would explain why you can't validate the details.

If in doubt call them using the contact details in the FCA link. 

ChesterDog

And just to be clear, MSE does not recommend any accounts or providers.

TheWoodler

Absolutely - MSE does not recommend, only highlights best buys at that time.  

The things to look out for with any deposit you make into a financial institution are: that they are regulated - the FCA link - and that they are covered by the FSCS up to £85k.

It’s worth reading altfi.com as a source of news about challenger banks like Oxbury - their USPs, how they work, and how they fit into the UK banking scene. Do your own research. 

Not all banks participate in Confirmation of Payee - currently the major High  Street banks and some others.

The fact that a receiving bank doesn’t participate, when your sending bank does, does not mean the destination bank is illegitimate, it simply indicates that it does not yet participate in CoP. 

However, it is a good prompt to check that you have correctly entered the right details - as you should for any account. So long as you enter your details as instructed in your welcome/account set-up email/letter, for any institutions not part of CoP, your money should reach the destination bank OK and you can check the account at the other end. 

FWIW, and *only* as a record of my dealings with Oxbury so far, their USPs as an agricultural bank and the way their app operates stood out to me, and I was impressed with their customer service when I had a query.