How Buzzacott helps global businesses launch to the UK and Europe in 2 weeks

Partner at Buzzacott, Claire Collins and manager Adam Galer, say their clients were still struggling with one of the most significant pain points: moving money from the home country to the new UK entity.

The Challenge

“Setting up UK based company accounts for overseas owned entities is challenging and time-consuming”, says Claire. Opting to set accounts with a high street bank comes with long and archaic processes that can stall the fluid movement of money between the home country and entities which, ultimately, delays commercial strategy.

Banks must follow strict protocols when setting these accounts up, which often means assistance from partners at Buzzacott and a lot of unnecessary back and forth — confirming information and additional explanation about the application form. 

Time spent with the banks is time that Buzzacott could be spending elsewhere servicing the client.

But it’s not only the time intensity that causes problems. “Some high street banks won’t deal with overseas ownership at all,” says Claire, “and the banks that do, have strict criteria requirements — requirements startups usually don’t meet.”

“Banks tend to judge a company by its turnover, " Claire explains, “even if your parent company is turning over £50m, it doesn’t matter. It only matters how your UK entity is performing. Coming up against these barriers time and time again is frustrating to new business.”

Companies are not required by regulation to have a business account in the UK, yet Buzzacott clients know they’ll probably need a UK-issued account to do business here. If they don’t, they’ll face problems in many situations — if they receive a HMRC refund, they’re owed money, but they can’t put it anywhere without an account. Or if pension companies deduct employee pension contributions, the company must have a direct debit from a UK account.

With all these obstacles for clients, it was clear that Buzzacott needed a solution that significantly improved how business accounts were created and managed globally. A solution that improved both their experience and the clients’.

The Solution

As a non-bank, Airwallex enables businesses to open Global Accounts - multi-currency business accounts - under its FCA regulated status as an Electronic Money Institution in the UK and 50 other licences around the world. This means Airwallex holds client funds in segregated and ring-fenced accounts. Furthermore, the global nature of Airwallex means it has built onboarding processes that accommodate complex non-domiciled ownership models. 

After implementing Airwallex Global Accounts, Buzzacott can open business accounts easily in the UK and internationally for any client, regardless of UK turnover.

This not only makes everyone’s experience frictionless, but it meets the high demand for convenience startups have now come to expect.

The convenience of this new process is invaluable. For example, if clients want to expand into Europe, there is no longer a need for Buzzacott to approach multiple banks in all countries their clients are registered in especially where the UK entity has multiple VAT registrations throughout Europe.

Instead, Airwallex’s Global Account solution solves this problem quickly from within the UK — they’re helping clients create a UK base for global expansion.

Although the solution's main benefits are ease and efficiency, clients can also enjoy competitive FX rates; because Airwallex isn’t built as a large corporate global bank, the savings can be passed onto the client.

Claire Collins

Partner

“Airwallex offers our clients a one-stop-shop; everything we need is under one roof. And there’s a significant value attached to this convenience — this is something that hugely matters to Buzzacott clients.”