The bank was contacted by a solicitor who specialises in the immigration of foreign nationals to the UK, with an enquiry about whether we could facilitate the requirements of an executive whose firm was relocating their executive committee to a new headquarters in London.

Hervé was employed in the role of global sales director, but spent the majority of this time travelling, outside of the UK, and developing business from an international client base. As a result of this, he had an employment contract which had specific remuneration arrangements to cater for his tax position, in that the majority of his salary would be non-UK earnings.

Hervé, a French national, is married to Alexia, an Italian national, would both be non-domiciled, but would be resident in the UK going forward.

The discussion

The bank were asked to provide a UK Sterling account in order to receive 25% of Hervé’s salary in Pounds Sterling and an international Euro account to receive the remaining 75% of his non-UK work-related salary in Euros.

Both accounts were to be joint accounts and both Hervé and Alexia requiring debit cards in the account’s currency so that they could manage their onshore and offshore expenditure appropriately. This request was a re-occurring one for Nedbank Private Wealth due to its UK brand, and international centres, and the ability to provide multi-currency capabilities.

The results

Once the accounts were open, Hervé and Alexia used their Euro account to consolidate the savings they had accumulated to date. They used their Sterling account to start save surplus income into wealth structures, such as ISAs, as well as receiving investment advice on what level of investment risk was appropriate for the couple.

As Hervé also has a small stake in his employer’s firm, their eventual aim is to financially benefit from any sale or floatation and, by dint of investing now, will also have built up their confidence levels in the investment process, seeking to amend their approach as time progresses and their circumstances change so that the investments remain suitable and support their financial goals and aspirations.