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Blue Chips: What can employers do to help non-dom or foreign employees?


Our team are always thinking about how we can position ourselves to appeal to our target market. We begin with a focus on individual foreign exchange services because from an individual's use of our platform we can grow the scope and application of our work.

We've found that it is easier to present to a director of a business than it is to court the business at large. We want to eat the elephant bit by bite.

Hence, it is reasonable for us to ask - how can we work with employers, blue chips and multi-nationals to reach their staff and provide our personal services to those who may benefit from them?

A member of staff has just had their hopes of relocating to take up a position at one of your overseas offices green-lit.

They need to sort out a great many personal matters before they leave and once they arrive. Renting their UK property? Opening a foreign bank account? Sourcing somewhere to live?

All of these concerns and more have, to a greater or lesser extent, a foreign exchange application associated with them.

Corporate relocation and relocation services is big business, however, personal financial services are often left out of the move and this can be very much to the detriment of the employee both in terms of the hassle associated with the use of more mainstream services and in terms of their actual bank balance.

Here we explore the differences between a laissez-faire 'they will find their own way' approach and the active introduction and recommendation of a payments specialist. What does it mean for ease, what can an employee do without and how much could be saved in the process?

 

This matter and this area of foreign exchange services is broad. It crosses many more touch points than just personal movement of savings in one country in to another.

Hence, we'll use a real life example of a private client moving to Singapore to take up a role heading the sales desk of a company mapping and succession planning management consultancy firm.

This individuals experiences and the amount of information and support provided by their employer is typical of many and provides us with a frame work for explaining the options open to both the employer and the employee.

 

Let's set the scene:


This individual is an account manager in the UK office of a business with a presence in the UK, US and Australia. They have offices in Chicago, London, and Sydney.

One of their key clients operates globally and it has become important for the consultancy to have a presence in South East Asia as this is one of the key markets for their client.

So, the business is looking into establishing a base in Singapore.

They have one contractor based out there, but, as yet they have no formal corporate structure.

The UK account manager (the manager of the account for the large client whose presence justifies the establishment of this office) will move our to Singapore and, as well as overseeing this prime account, will serve as a territory representative, sales person and lead business developer.

It will be a touch slog, but, the employee is confident, capable and very motivated.

 

The prime|key client will pay this employee in Singapore Dollar (SGD).

Straight away this presents the business with a foreign exchange concern.

Whilst their employee will be living and earning in SGD, the company's currency of operation - at least in terms of the financing of this venture - is denominated in sterling GBP. Therefore, the business now needs to repatriate profits and, potentially, exchange GBP in to SGD to fund activities not covered by the Prime client's retainer.

The business does deal in other currencies - namely US dollar (USD) and Australian Dollar (AUD). From their London office they also incur expenses and earn somewhat in EUR.


Prime Cap would consider this brief to be one of a multi currency exposure.

Immediately we can discern that the accounts team, based in London, are managing multiple currency accounts and as well as moving|exchanging currencies between their own accounts (which carries it own operation costs and FX margin) they need to select which account to pay their various expenses from.

So, they might benefit from being able to see all of their foreign and sterling currency balances in one place, on one screen.

Our online platform gives them access to and visibility over all their currency holdings. By registering as our client they can use Prime Cap's access to segregated accounts and can send, receive, exchange and hold currencies as they wish. For longer term deposits they sim