So four long years after the UK narrowly voted to leave the European Union, the day has come when the UK will officially exit the EU. This will happen at 11pm UK time this evening, Friday 31st January 2020. There then follows an 11 month transition period. During this transition, the UK will continue to abide by EU laws and regulations, whilst it negotiates it own trade deals with both the EU and the rest of the world.
As we are a UK-based business we wanted to take this opportunity to again reassure our customers about our position and the impact on MIDAS during this transition.
We’d like to remind customers that all our administrative operations are based here in the UK, with our primary server infrastructure residing in the United States (and with backup systems in the UK). We have no staffing or physical infrastructure in other EU countries. Therefore, the UK exiting the EU later today will not affect the day-to-day running of our own operations going forward.
Over 90% of our customers will reside outside of EU countries once the UK leaves the EU. Consequently, any subsequent volatility within the EU itself will have a negligible impact on our financial position.
We continue to do business across the globe – including with other EU states. Our current and future EU customers are no less valued than our customers in any other country. This won’t change after today’s Brexit.
Pricing and Exchange Rates
As you may be aware, we recently revised the pricing model for the cloud-hosted edition of our software. We have now, however, raised our prices as a result of the UK’s decision to leave the EU.
As we offer payment for MIDAS in a number of global currencies (including Euros), our prices automatically update daily based on global exchange rates. Previously these automatic updates were based on the exchange rate that particular day alone. Since the Brexit vote was delivered back in June 2016, and the fluctuations there’s been in currency exchange rates, we’ve improved our exchange rate calculations. They are now instead based on an “average” of the exchange rate over the previous 8 weeks. This helps smooth out any short term “blips” that may occur from day-to-day, allowing a more consistent price to be shown on our website for non GBP currencies, including Euros.
In conclusion..
Our message is still that we’re hopeful and excited about the UK’s future in the global economy. Whilst we are “Brexiting” today, our EU customers – both existing and future – won’t be treated any differently. It continues to be business as usual here at MIDAS HQ!