Photo of Anisha Shah, J.P. Morgan and Alex Coombe, Emma Hallett and Dan Bearman, IWG.
Sarah Saxby
Group Treasury Director
UK IWG plc, formerly Regus, is the global operator of leading workspace providers. These include Regus, Spaces, No18, Basepoint, Open Office and Signature by Regus. Their companies help more than 2.5 million people and their businesses to work more productively across the world.
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The challenge
IWG’s expansive reach and scale, encompassing over 4,000 individual workspaces and legal entities, led to a complex treasury structure. One European region, consisting of only four countries, had 400 legal entities and 600 bank accounts. Additionally, the company’s sophisticated payables and receivables model required meticulous reporting, which took time away from other treasury tasks. IWG wanted to simplify treasury operations in this region to save time, reduce costs and mitigate risks – and they knew that a virtual account solution would help them accomplish these goals.
The solution
This large-scale project required changes to the IWG business model and close collaboration with various internal departments, including the legal, finance and tax teams. At the same time, the company needed to navigate different account structures for owned entities and franchised partner entities. However, because IWG’s accounts were all managed from a single shared service centre, the company did not need to access separate accounting systems to make changes and moved quickly to set up the solution. The process was also simplified by IWG’s direct connection to J.P. Morgan Payments through Swift FileAct, which secured and accelerated large data file transfers.
IWG ultimately reduced physical bank accounts in four European countries from 600 to just 12. It also centralised its European payments for the four countries through a single EEA hub at J.P. Morgan. Now, its remaining physical accounts have two separate entities under them – one for company-owned workspaces and another that collects payments from franchises. Each of these entities comprises multiple virtual accounts, totalling 375. This solution, anchored in a EUR and CHF framework at J.P. Morgan, significantly improves cash management and enhanced efficiency for the treasury team.
Best practice and innovation
Maintaining operational efficiency as a large, growing company requires creative treasury solutions. Virtual accounts provide the speed and ease of use that IWG needs to stay productive while continuing to expand. Harnessing this account structure has also maintained operational visibility with real-time reporting while achieving rapid cash centralisation across multiple European countries. This empowers IWG to accelerate cash management, reduce risks for its treasury team, and consolidate into a single global EUR position. IWG saves additional time and resources due to J.P. Morgan’s KYC light processes for virtual accounts.
Because of this solution, IWG is positioned at the beginning of a much larger transformation that reinforces the company’s role as a leader in today’s hybrid workspace. Since virtual accounts are so flexible and scalable, the company can easily migrate more physical accounts in other regions to similar structures. Overall, reducing physical accounts is a best practice that improves efficiency and opens the door to future innovations across IWG’s treasury department.
IWG sees the tangible benefits of a virtual account structure and will continue to utilise it in any jurisdictions where it is permitted. This will help it manage and modify virtual account structures, such as adding new legal entities quickly, leveraging streamlined KYC and virtual account opening, and tracking transaction activity around the world – and around the clock. Essentially, the company has created a new standard virtual account model. As it unlocks more productivity gains and cost savings through its new virtual account structure, IWG Treasury is well positioned to support the Group’s position as the world’s number one workspace provider by effectively future proofing its European business operations.
Key benefits
Cost savings (cUS$400,000).
Number of banking partners/bank accounts reduced.
Process efficiencies.
Increased automation.
Improved visibility.
Future-proof solution.
Exceptional implementation (budget/time).
“At IWG, the complex nature of our business means that we as a group must be more creative about managing bank accounts. Reducing our accounts makes a huge difference. Even tasks like banking setups are a lot easier now with the virtual account structure,” says Sarah Saxby, Group Treasury Director.
Anisha Shah
Vice President, UK & Ireland Payments Sales, J.P. Morgan Payments
We are thrilled to recognise the outstanding efforts and innovative spirit of the International Workspace Group (IWG) and J.P. Morgan Payments in implementing a transformative multi-entity virtual account solution that has transformed IWG’s treasury operations. This innovation, led by Sarah Saxby, has streamlined IWG’s treasury operations across Europe, reducing physical bank accounts from 600 to 12 while maintaining efficiency and visibility. Their strategic vision and execution exemplify the power of treasury technology. The close partnership between J.P. Morgan Payments and IWG has set a new standard for virtual account management, reinforcing IWG’s leadership in the hybrid workspace industry. We proudly celebrate IWG’s success and look forward to witnessing the continued impact of its solution on the business, its customers and the wider community.
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