Across the UK, the start-up and SMEs scene is rapidly expanding. Despite the growing number of small
Across the UK, the start-up and SMEs scene is rapidly expanding. Despite the growing number of small businesses, many still struggle with limited banking support, complex account structures, and financial tools that are misaligned with the demands of modern business operations. From slow processes to rigid products, traditional banks often leave small businesses underserved and overlooked.
In this Q&A, Steve Chu, Head of Commercial Banking, iFAST Global Bank, shares his insights on the evolving business banking landscape and how iFAST Global Bank is challenging traditional banking norms to better serve their clients.
Steve: At iFAST Global Bank, our commercial philosophy is anchored under a single commitment: "Reimagine banking together."
To us, "digital-first" isn't just about moving traditional banking online; it is about completely rethinking how a bank should function to support the speed and complexity of the modern digital economy. We are not just a service provider; we are a partner in your growth. As the Business Banking Team at iFAST Global Bank, we see our Multi-Currency Business Account not just as a product, but as the engine for modern, borderless enterprises. We have built a platform that removes the friction of borders. Our account integrates 9 major currencies (GBP, USD, EUR, HKD, SGD, CNY, JPY, CHF, AED) into a single account. By enabling you to pay, receive, and hold funds locally in the UK and globally, we help you operate like a local business, anywhere in the world. We believe your capital should never be idle. Our digital cost-saving structure allows us to add value for our clients. We offer competitive interest rates on working capital, turning your daily operational funds into a productive asset that combats inflation. Empowered by our in-house IT resources this digital-first strategy enables us to easily connect with our clients and understand their needs, allowing us to constantly evolve our digital capabilities to become the trusted, global banking partner for our clients.
Steve: Historically, businesses have had to manually manage their cash—moving money from a non-interest-bearing 'current account' to a 'savings account' just to earn interest, and moving it back when they need to pay bills. That creates administrative drag and liquidity risks.
Our all-in-one structure removes that friction. At iFAST Global Bank, we want to help businesses grow their capital. We offer interest directly on the current account balance for each currency. This essentially automates treasury management for SMEs and Corporates. They can keep their capital liquid for immediate operational needs—like payroll or inventory—while still earning a return on every dollar, pound, or euro that sits idle.
That said, “Reimagine banking together” also means aligning our services with our clients’ ongoing operations.
While the all-in-one structure is fantastic for efficiency, we know that many businesses especially larger corporates, require strict segregation of funds for accounting, audit, or project-specific reasons. Therefore, we also offer the flexibility to open stand-alone currency accounts.
If a client needs to isolate their USD revenue from their GBP tax provisions, we can structure that effortlessly. We provide a streamlined digital architecture, while giving the client flexibility to decide exactly how they want to incorporate it.
Steve: Firstly, we commit to radical transparency. Unlike many competitors who hide behind opaque pricing structures, we are transparent with our Commercial Banking fees. You can find them on our website under fee structure. There are no hidden tiers or surprise costs. Additionally, we display the exact exchange rate and fee in our platform before any transaction is executed. What you see is exactly what you pay for.
Secondly, we offer settlement capabilities with zero forced conversions. We allow clients to receive and hold funds in any of our 9 major currencies without automatically converting them to GBP. Clients decide when to convert, not us. This eliminates double-conversion fees and allows clients to earn interest on each currency balance while they wait to be deployed.
Looking forward, we have ongoing plans in improving our services to make banking more efficient for our clients. In Q1 2026, we will launch a feature that allows clients to deduct funds from any currency held in their account and pay out to 50+ additional currencies in a 'one-go' transaction. This eliminates intermediate hops and lowers the cost of transfers to less accessible markets.
Steve: We categorise our target businesses into four main groups.
1. The E-Commerce Seller
These businesses sell on Amazon US or Shopify Europe, receiving revenue in USD or EUR, while importing goods from other countries. Traditional banks often force an automatic conversion to GBP upon receipt, only for businesses to have to make transfers back to USD two weeks later to pay a supplier. The iFAST Solution: Our account acts as a universal wallet. They can receive USD revenue directly, hold it in the account earning interest, and use those same dollars to pay suppliers. They bypass the FX buy/sell spread entirely, effectively increasing their net margin.
2. The Cross-Border Service Provider
(e.g., Consultancies, Digital Agencies) A UK agency with clients in Dubai and Singapore traditionally needs to open separate local bank accounts in each jurisdiction to get paid. This creates a reconciliation nightmare. The iFAST Solution: We give them local footing globally. They can provide local account details for 9 different currencies, accessible by one login. As a result, they can operate efficiently though a single account without reconciliation lags.
3. The Import/Export SME
Volatility risk is a challenge that importers/exporters face. An importer paying a supplier in Euros knows that if the exchange rate shifts 2% overnight, their profit on a shipment could be wiped out. The iFAST Solution: Control over timing. We give businesses the flexibility to buy currencies when the rate is favourable and hold them in the account for weeks or months, earning interest until the invoice is due. Hence, currency management turns from a reactive risk into a proactive strategy.
4. The Local Business Testing Global Waters
Local businesses often face high barriers to entry when expanding into new markets. A successful local bakery or design firm who wants to test the waters in France or the US is often blocked by bureaucracy. Traditional banks may reject their application for a foreign currency account without a foreign corporate entity or a high minimum deposit. The iFAST Solution: Instant Global Infrastructure. We allow local UK businesses to open a USD or EUR account instantly, with no minimum balance and no need for a foreign office. As a result, they can issue an invoice in Dollars or Euros from Day 1. It gives them the 'big business' credibility they need to win their first international client, without the heavy operational setup.
We help businesses close the operational gap between ambition and execution. Whether you are a giant exporter or a local shop looking for your first foreign customer, we provide the banking infrastructure to make that trade happen.
Steve: In the current economic climate, idle cash is a depreciating asset. By offering interest on multi-currency balances, we transform the business account from a simple utility into an active financial tool —turning 'Lazy Money' into Active Capital.
Most businesses keep a significant 'float' in their operating accounts to cover payroll, rent, or upcoming invoices. In a traditional bank, this money sits at 0% interest, effectively losing value against inflation every single day. At iFAST Global Bank, we pay interest on these operational balances. We don't require clients to lock their money away in a 12-month fixed deposit to earn returns. Their capital remains 100% liquid and ready to deploy, while it earns yield. Typically, UK businesses who hold other currencies face a huge dilemma. They either get 0% interest or are forced to convert it to GBP and transfer it to a savings product (incurring FX fees).
For many of our active clients, the interest earned on their average daily balance is higher than the fees they pay for transfers and FX. This effectively drives their net cost of banking down to zero — or even turns their capital into a profit centre.
In short, we believe that a bank shouldn't just store your value; it should add to it.
Steve: One of the industry’s biggest pain points is managing the balance between the speed and security of transactions.
We have digitised the end-to-end onboarding chain for UK local businesses. By utilising advanced biometrics and liveness detection, we remove the need for physical branch visits. This is a game-changer not just for international clients, but also for local UK businesses who are often deprioritised by high-street banks; we provide them with a 'digital fast lane', eliminating the weeks of paperwork typically required by incumbents. Furthermore, we keep expert compliance teams in the loop. This hybrid approach allows us to serve both the local UK market and complex global entities with the same agility, all while upholding the robust safety standards of a fully licensed, UK-regulated bank.
Steve: We approach it from three distinct angles: technical, operational, and regulatory. On the technical front, we employ a 'defense-in-depth' strategy using strict biometrics, dynamic two-factor authentication, and our pioneering numberless Visa Debit cards (Available to UK registered entities only) to remove sensitive data from physical risk. Operationally, we put control directly in the client's hands; businesses can tailor-make their own payment approval matrix, setting specific limits by currency and enforcing a maximum of 2-layer verification for any payment. This ensures that the client retains full control over their internal governance and that funds only move exactly when and how they authorize. Finally, overarching all of this is our regulatory status: iFAST Global Bank is fully licensed by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This combination of flexible client controls and rigid institutional standards gives our customers the safety of a Tier-1 bank with the agility of a fintech.
Steve: We dismantle the barriers that historically exclude smaller players. We recognise that for a growing SME, liquidity of their funds is key. Traditional banks often demand high minimum deposits, effectively forcing a business to lock away capital. By removing minimum balance requirements, we enable businesses to deploy 100% of their funds. of their capital into growth rather than parking it just to satisfy a bank’s arbitrary threshold. Unlike traditional current accounts that typically offer zero return, we provide a reasonable interest of 2.65% AER on GBP (variable) on daily cash flow. This allows small businesses to maintain the high level of liquidity they need for operations while still treating their cash as a productive asset. Combining earnable interest on any amount with our streamlined digital documentation, we are effectively removing the 'administrative barrier' for businesses, giving local SMEs quicker access to banking infrastructure that backs their future potential.
Steve: The market is currently polarised: Traditional banks are de-risking and closing doors, while many fintechs offer speed but lack the infrastructure to establish a full banking service. We stand out in three clear ways:
1. Shifting from 'Profitability-First' to 'Growth-First'
The biggest difference is our mindset towards the client relationship. Traditional banks have largely become gatekeepers, deciding who to onboard based on a strict calculation of immediate profitability. If a business doesn’t promise a high enough margin or fee generation, they are often sidelined or rejected. We refuse to operate that way. We focus on legitimacy and potential, not just their current size. We are actively stepping in to support legitimate, growing UK businesses that are currently 'under-served' simply because they don't fit the rigid profit models of legacy banks. We believe in growing with our clients, providing them with banking infrastructure today so we can be their trusted partner as they scale tomorrow.
2. Co-Creation Powered by IT Strength
Our slogan 'Reimagine banking together' is not just marketing; it is our product roadmap. Unlike competitors who force clients to adapt to rigid, off-the-shelf systems, we actively listen to what our clients need and then we build it. Almost one-third of the entire iFAST Group’s staff are in IT and development. This massive in-house capability means we don't have to wait for third-party vendors to update our systems. If our clients tell us they need a specific payment feature or a new currency capability, we have the internal technological capabilities to develop and deploy it. We grow with our clients, adapting our platform as they scale.
3. The 'Paying' Bank vs. The 'Charging' Bank
We are here to challenge the economic model of business banking. Most competitors view a business account as a fee-generating product. We view it as a value-generating asset for our clients. We pay competitive interest (2.65% AER on GBP, variable) on active current account balances. For many clients, this interest may offset their transaction fees.
Steve: Strategically, we are deepening our global infrastructure. Beyond the UK, we are actively expanding into key markets. We are establishing iFAST Securities US Corporation to strengthen our connectivity to the US stock market , and we are pursuing a banking license in Europe. This means our clients will eventually benefit from deeper, localised fintech capabilities across the globe.
Over the coming year, we are looking to expand our services. Key projects include:
Lending Solutions: We are closing the loop on business finance by introducing lending products. We will support our clients' working capital needs with short-term installment loans, overdraft (OD) facilities, and secured lending options. We want to fuel their growth, not just store their cash.
Financial Operations: On the product side, we are building a complete 'Financial Operating System' for businesses.
Payment Innovations: We are deepening our local UK capabilities with BACS enablement and launching Tap-to-Pay directly on our own mobile app, turning the phone itself into a payment terminal for merchants.
Workflow Automation: We are launching accounting system integrations, allowing our banking data to flow seamlessly into clients' ERPs to automate reconciliation.
User Experience: We are overhauling our UI/UX across both the mobile app and web portal, making complex corporate banking feel as intuitive as a consumer app.
Finally, as mentioned, we are expanding our currency capability. By Q1 2026, we aim to support 50+ additional currencies, allowing clients to pay globally in one transaction.
In short, we aspire to be the banking partner that global SMEs choose for payments, lending and growth.
A Multi-Currency Business Account allows businesses to hold, pay, and receive funds in multiple currencies within a single account, simplifying international transactions and reducing currency conversion fees.
Cross-border payments refer to transactions where money is transferred from one country to another, often involving currency conversion and international banking regulations.
Digital banking refers to the use of online platforms and mobile apps to manage banking services, allowing customers to perform transactions without visiting a physical bank branch.
SMEs, or Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, are businesses whose personnel numbers fall below certain limits, often characterized by their smaller scale and limited resources compared to larger corporations.
Explore more articles in the Interviews category
