Consider the likely pattern of your income and expenditure, any plans you may have for pricing in euro and your understanding of what your suppliers and customers may want. Look at the structure of your business. Banks are in competition in this area so you should shop around for the best deal. Below are some of the services you may wish to enquire about and a checklist of options you may want to consider. If you are likely to do business in euro, and you are not familiar with handling exchange rate risk, read factsheet 8.
Bank accounts Most banks plan to offer current, deposit and loan accounts in euro.
If you already have accounts in the currencies of participating countries, the launch of the euro gives you the opportunity to consolidate them. If you had an ECU account, this automatically became a euro account on January 1, 1999. There will be a number of ways of making and receiving payments in euro. A standard has been developed for these cheques so that they look different from sterling cheques. Your bank will use this when it supplies you with cheques.