MoneyBookers is an e-commerce business that allows payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. It serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods such as cheques and money orders. Moneybookers performs payment processing for websites, online auction sites, and other corporate users.
Moneybookers was bought by Investcorp Technology Partners for €105 Million in March 2007 and as of the 9 March 2009 has been put up for sale by its owners Investcorp for an estimated £365m.
Like many competing online fund transfer services (e.g., PayPal), MoneyBookers requires identity verification before using their service to minimize fraud and prevent money laundering. Additional verification steps raise the maximum amount transferable to €50,000 or equivalent within a 90-day period. Moneybookers does not usually get involved in merchandise disputes and the availability of credit card chargebacks may be limited.
The moneybookers.com domain was created June 17, 2001. It was launched on 1 April 2002 according to the Moneybookers press center.
Almost 2 million new users registered with Moneybookers in the initial 1.5 years of operation. On the 2nd Sept 2008 Moneybookers claimed to operate in all countries and handle over 5.5 million accounts. As of 27 January 2010, Moneybookers claims to have over 14.8 million account holders.