Wilcox explains that operating on a day-to-day basis was somewhat problematic as a result of below par customer service: “I had a bad experience with a specialist smaller savings institution. It was hard to get through on the phone and I found myself being routes through to the 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 acoutns on a day to day basis then they soon forget.”

Wilcox certainly knows the issues with customer service from the inside and the outside after formerly running the HBOS telephone Banking division. He believes the key lies within dedicated expert teams to deal with expats, rather than expecting UK call centre staff to know all of the ins and outs.

“Contact and understanding of the needs of expats are key, and colleagues need to be specialists. 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.

“I would personally have liked it if my company had set me up with a package of financial services, for example, and offshore Banking and savings account and a multi currency account which would have been very useful when earning Euros in Europe.”

BOSI is taking Wilcox’s criticisms of his own experiences further and is currently approaching companies with this very idea in order to fully cater for their expatriate customers.

He also believes offshore mortgages should play a larger part of the expatriate packages offered by financial providers. Going forward for 2007, Wilcox hopes that BOSI and Halifax International will both play a prominent role, offering their own distinct portfolios of accounts and services.