Bank of Scotland International aims to be fastest growing offshore bank

If anyone is qualified to understand the needs and challenges of living as an expatriate, it is Tony Wilcox, managing director of Bank of Scotland International (BOSI). Having lived abroad for five years himself, he is well aware of how much red tape and form-filling is required when moving from one country to another.

So it is no surprise that he has brought this personal experience to bear in his new job, heading up Bank of Scotland International, the specialist offshore subsidiary of HBOS, the UK's fourth largest banking group. Having formerly run the telephone banking division for HBOS, and with a strong customer services and banking background, Mr Wilcox is acutely aware of the importance of staff being properly trained to help and advise offshore customers.

He spent three years in Africa, where he found it “relatively easy” to set up an offshore account, but discovered that operating it on a day to day basis was more problematic. “I had a bad experience with a specialist smaller savings institution,” he says. “It was hard to get through on the phone and I found myself being routed through to UK generalist call centres where staff had limited or no specific knowledge of offshore products. They may have been trained but if they don’t deal with offshore accounts on a day to day basis then they soon forget.” The end result was big problems with administering the account, and issues with credits going astray.

This experience has made him passionate about ensuring that Bank of Scotland International colleagues are thoroughly versed in all aspects of offshore banking. With his background in telephone banking services in the UK, he believes that it is better for dedicated teams to deal with expatriates, rather than expecting staff in UK call centres to have all the expertise. “Contact and understanding of the needs of expats are key, and colleagues need to be specialists,” he says. “It is important that they are properly trained and used to dealing with your type of problems every day. It is not good enough to delegate to generalist contact centres.”

After working in Africa, Mr Wilcox spent a year in France and a year in Germany. He admits that his preparations for moving overseas were mostly concerned with getting housing and visas sorted, leaving him little time to set up an offshore savings account.

“I would have liked it if my company had set me up with a package of financial services – for example, an offshore banking and savings account and a multi currency account which would have been very useful when earning Euros in Europe” he says. In fact, he believes it would have been such a benefit that Bank of Scotland International is now approaching companies with this very idea, in order to provide employees moving abroad with a bundle of accounts to meet all an expatriate’s initial needs.

It was after only a few months in his overseas job that Mr Wilcox began to think seriously about how to manage his banking and savings accounts. “After a while, I started thinking about savings quite seriously. I wanted to maximise the benefits of working abroad and build up my capital.” He used local editions of the national press and searched on the internet, but at that time was not aware of specialist websites which would have been a useful source of information.

When he returned to the UK he was clear about what was needed to make offshore banking meet the real needs of people working abroad. Along with specialist call centre colleagues, he passionately believes that accounts should be simple to open and operate, products should be designed specifically for the expatriate market and websites should be as interactive and easy to navigate as possible. In addition, he believes strongly that a multi currency package of current and savings accounts is essential, especially for people working all over the world.

He cites a personal example: “When I worked in France I was not offered a Euro account as part of an offshore package, so I had to go onshore with a local bank to open a savings account in Euros.”

Tony also feels that the importance of offshore mortgages is often overlooked. “They are important to expatriates, who want to keep a foot on the property ladder" he says. "That's why we offer a specialist mortgage service which includes buy to let options".

His vision for 2007 is for the two brands of Bank of Scotland International and Halifax International to both play a prominent role, each with its own distinct portfolio of accounts and services.

All in all, an ambitious agenda aimed at making Bank of Scotland International one of the fastest growing offshore banks.