The Stoa Glossary

Perk

A Perk is the benefit you will receive expressed as the price for a good or service provided by one of the Brands we offer together with the required deposit size.

Stoa Pot

A Stoa Pot is based on the Perk you choose and links your personal details to the details of that Perk and the associated deposit - it forms the basis of a contract between you and Stoa. A customer can choose any number of Perks and make a similar number of deposits all at once or one at a time. The number of Perks you choose will be equal to the number Pots we create and the number of deposits you have.

Deposit

A deposit is an amount of money that is required to be added to your Stoa Pots account. Subsequently, you will receive the relevant Perk. 1 Deposit = 1 Stoa Pot = 1 Perk.

You can make multiple deposits in a single transaction payment, which we define as a movement of money from your bank account to your Stoa Pots account. One single transaction payment can represent multiple deposits, therefore.

For example, if Netflix requires a deposit of £3,000 and Ticketmaster requires a deposit of £2,000, you can open a Stoa Pot for each by making a single transaction payment of £5,000. This represents both the £3,000 deposit and the £2,000 deposit, respectively. As a Stoa Pot is its own contract between you and Stoa, each deposit is, by extension, subject to its own terms.

Your account at Griffin bank

We will open a bank account for you, in your name, at our partner Griffin bank, where your deposits are held. We will only open one bank account for you irrespective of how many Pots you open, and so all your deposits will be held in the same account.

Stoa Account

When you sign up to Stoa we create an account for you on our platform where you can find all your personal details, view and manage your Pots and select new Perks.

Griffin bank

Griffin is a purpose-built, technology-enabled bank, partnered with Stoa, to offer real-time payment and innovative banking services to its customers. Griffin partners with Stoa by providing the underlying real bank accounts, which offer FSCS protection.

Griffin is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and is regulated by the FCA and PRA. Griffin’s Financial Service Register number is 970920 (can be accessed here). For further information you can call the Financial Conduct Authority on 0300 500 8082. You can also find out more about Griffin at its website, here.

Open Banking

Open Banking is a UK government initiative enabling secure sharing of financial data. We use an industry-leading provider called Yapily to securely connect your bank account to Stoa through an ‘Open Banking API’. You can read more about how Open Banking works here.

Yapily

Yapily is our trusted Open Banking provider which allows us to securely connect to your bank account. By partnering with Yapily, we're able to offer faster processing times, and deposits via bank transfer are more secure. You can read more about Yapily here or visit their website, here.

Connected Bank

To make a deposit and begin your Stoa journey, you need to 'connect' one of your bank accounts to your Stoa Account. This is enabled using our Open Banking provider, Yapily.

You can only connect one bank account at a time, and this should be the account you intend to make your deposit from. This is referred to as your Connected Bank in the Stoa web application.

Confirmation of Payee (CoP)

Confirmation of Payee (CoP) is a payee checking service that helps prevents UK domestic payments from being sent to the wrong account. It does this by making sure the payee account details provided match the details held by their provider.

When you interact with Stoa, a CoP check occurs at the following places:

1. When you connect a bank account to Stoa (Your Connected Bank Account), Stoa carries out a CoP check to verify that the bank account is in your name.

2. When you make a deposit to your Stoa Pots account, your bank may carry out a CoP check to verify that the account is in your name.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

The FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) is a financial regulatory body in the United Kingdom that operates independently of the UK Government. Stoa operates under the umbrella of our banking partner, Griffin Bank, who are regulated by the FCA. You can find out more about the FCA here.

The FSCS and FSCS protection

The FSCS (Financial Services Compensation Scheme) provides protection for customers of failed financial services firms. All your eligible deposits are FSCS protected up to £85,000 per depositor. For more information, you can click here.

The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA)

The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) is a part of the Bank of England that sets standards and supervises banks, building societies, insurers, and major investment firms in the UK to ensure their safety and soundness and protect policyholders. Established in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the PRA's core objectives are to promote firms' safety and soundness and to protect policyholders, thereby contributing to the overall stability of the UK financial system.