Payoneer funds now available except bank withdrawals

Payoneer has provided an update saying that customer funds that were frozen following the Wirecard AG fraud incident will be available for withdrawal to your local bank accounts starting 6 July 2020 on 12:01 am Central European Time (CET) or 3:01 am Pakistan Time (PKT).

However, right now customers can access their funds through ATM and use their cards for online purchases. Payoneer has even waived off any ATM withdrawal fee until bank withdrawals are working again.

According to a blog post by Payoneer, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has lifted restrictions from Wirecard and assured that no further problems are expected. However, it will take time for MasterCard to lift technical restrictions from their end.

The blog post also states that all future Payoneer funds will held by the company and even though FCA has announced that cards are now safe to use, Payoneer will be offering a new card issuer to ensure future safety of their customer earnings.

For those of you who don’t know the story behind what happened, Wirecard UK which is the primary card issuer for Payoneer is a subsidiary of Wirecard AG in Germany. Since Wirecard AG was involved in a massive fraud worth almost $2 billion dollars, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) put a freeze on all Wirecard UK transactions and funds in order to protect the money of customers.

However, the matter according to Payoneer has been resolved and funds will soon be accessible. Payoneer CEO Scott Galit also stated that even in the case where there is a shortfall of funds after the FCA audit, Payoneer will personally fill that gap to provide its customers with 100% of their money back.