5 Best Mercury Alternatives for Non-US and International Companies in 2026

A company incorporated only in the UK or EU cannot open a Mercury account, because Mercury's own eligibility rules require US formation and US operations. Your five realistic alternatives, Wise Business, Round, Airwallex, Revolut Business and Payoneer, are not interchangeable substitutes for each other.

Each sits under a different regulator, holds your money under a different legal status, and prices its service differently. The right choice depends on where your entity is registered, how your money is actually protected if the provider fails, and what you are paying for that protection.

TL;DR

• Mercury requires US formation and US operations, so a UK or EU-only company cannot open an account, per Mercury's own FAQ checked 1 September 2026.
• Round Financial Limited (FRN 1050315) is not itself authorised to issue e-money. We distribute Keel Money Ltd's e-money under Regulation 33 of the EMRs, and our FSCS-protected route runs through Insignis Asset Management (FRN 813442) rather than through us directly.
• Wise Payments Limited (FRN 900507) and Airwallex (UK) Limited (FRN 900876) are FCA-authorised electronic money institutions: your balance is safeguarded e-money, not a bank deposit, and is not FSCS-protected.
• Revolut Business customers are mid-migration from Revolut Ltd (e-money, FRN 900562) to the new Revolut Bank UK Ltd, which launched as a full UK bank on 11 March 2026 and can offer FSCS-protected deposits up to £120,000.
• Payoneer Payment Services (UK) Limited (FRN 966835) is also an FCA-authorised e-money institution; its own pricing page, checked 1 September 2026, lists an annual fee, a 1% non-local receiving fee and up to 3.5% on card FX.
• On £480,000 a year of GBP to EUR volume, published FX pricing across these providers ranges from roughly £480 to £2,400 a year depending on provider and plan tier, at the 1 September 2026 mid-market rate of £1 = €1.1678.

Weighing treasury, AP and payroll against a plain multi-currency account? Book a Round demo to see how the account-opening and FX mechanics actually work before you switch.

Why can't a UK or EU company just open a Mercury account?

Mercury's own FAQ states that customers must be formed and registered in the United States or a US territory, have existing or planned US operations, and provide a US or international address for their principal place of business.

That is a structural residency requirement, not a size or revenue test.

A UK Ltd, an Irish DAC or a German GmbH with no US registration and no US operations plan does not meet it, regardless of turnover or investor base.

Mercury also excludes some structures outright: it cannot open accounts for trusts or money services businesses, and it does not currently support founders or financial controllers based in a separate list of countries it names on its own site.

It does welcome non-US founders of an otherwise-qualifying US company, so the actual gap is where the company is incorporated, not who runs it.

The practical effect is that Mercury's FDIC pass-through insurance and its own treasury yield product are scoped to a US entity's account, and neither travels with a business that banks outside the US in the first place.

What should decide your choice?

Start with where the company is legally registered, because every alternative below gates eligibility on that, not on where customers or investors sit.

The filter most comparison articles skip is where your money legally sits once it lands in the account: a bank deposit, safeguarded e-money, client money placed with a third party, or units in an investment fund.

Each has a different failure mode if the provider or its bank goes under.

Of the five providers here, three are FCA-authorised electronic money institutions in their own right, one is mid-transition to a licensed UK bank, and one distributes someone else's e-money rather than holding its own permission.

Only one route across all five carries Financial Services Compensation Scheme protection today, and it is not any provider's everyday current-account balance.

Currency coverage is the filter every marketing page leads with, and it is worth reading literally: a currency count and a local-account count answer different questions.

Finally, decide how much of the finance workflow needs to sit on top of the account itself. A fast multi-currency account next to a finance team still doing accounts payable and payroll by hand has only solved half the problem.

How do the five Mercury alternatives compare on protection, price and capability?

Use the table to see where each provider's money actually sits and what it costs before you read the company detail below.

Read the middle column literally: 'safeguarded e-money' and 'FSCS-protected' describe different legal outcomes if the provider fails, not two names for the same protection.

1. Wise Business: safeguarded e-money, not a bank deposit

Wise Payments Limited is authorised by the FCA as an electronic money institution, FRN 900507, authorised since 7 June 2018 according to the FCA's own e-money firms register.

Wise's own help centre states plainly that funds held with Wise are not covered by the compensation scheme: 'The e-money and payment services provided to you by Wise Payments Ltd are not subject to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).'

Instead Wise safeguards customer money by holding a mix of cash across several large banks plus short-dated government bonds, kept apart from Wise's own operating funds.

On price, Wise's own business pricing page states sending and converting money starts 'from 0.24%', varying by currency route and funding method, on top of a one-off £50 fee to unlock every Wise Business feature.

The capability boundary is explicit on Wise's own account pages: Wise does not offer overdrafts, business loans or credit lines, so a company needing working-capital credit alongside its payments account needs a second provider.

Opening an account is not instant: Wise's own guidance says review for more complex structures, such as multiple directors or holding companies, 'usually takes up to 10 working days' after sign-up.

Wise fits a company whose main need is multi-currency collection and payout with accounting-software sync, using local account details in 9+ currencies, rather than embedded treasury oversight or payroll automation.

2. Round: treasury, AP and payroll built on top of an e-money distribution structure

Round Financial Limited holds FRN 1050315 and is authorised and regulated by the FCA. Our own terms describe a structure worth reading in full rather than paraphrasing: we are "appointed under Regulation 33 of the EMRs to distribute and/or redeem electronic money on behalf of Keel Money Ltd. and is not itself authorised to issue electronic money or provide payment services."

Keel Money Ltd is a separately FCA-authorised electronic money institution, FRN 1020783, authorised since 14 October 2025. Day-to-day e-money in your Round account is safeguarded under Keel Money's permissions and is not FSCS-protected.

We would rather state that plainly than let a reader assume otherwise.

We are also an agent of Plaid Financial Limited, FRN 804718, an FCA-authorised payment institution, for the account-connection data behind Connected Banking.

Our Savings route works differently. We act as an Introducer to Insignis Asset Management Limited, FRN 813442, authorised under the Payment Services Regulations 2017. Insignis's own legal page states deposits placed with its partner banks are FSCS-protected up to the standard £120,000 limit per banking licence, spread across 40-plus partner banks to build an aggregate of up to £3.5m.

Our third route, the AI Treasury Manager sweep into BlackRock's ICS money market funds, is neither a deposit nor safeguarded e-money. It is an investment, and your capital is at risk.

Rates quoted are the net daily yield from the BlackRock ICS Sterling Liquidity Fund as of 13 November 2025: Launch 3.29%, Growth 3.59%, Enterprise up to 3.79% AER.

Withdrawals must be requested by 10:30am for same-day liquidity on the Growth and Enterprise tiers; the Launch tier settles the next day instead.

Our FX is tiered by plan: 0.50% on Launch, 0.30% on Growth, and as low as 0.10% on Enterprise, across GBP, USD and EUR only. That is a narrower currency set than Wise's 40-plus or Airwallex's 20-plus, and for some companies it is the reason to stop reading here.

We also quote a flat 15 basis point headline rate elsewhere, so confirm the rate that applies to your plan before you model a single figure.

A named capability boundary: we list no card product among our features. Our scope is treasury, accounts payable and payroll rather than card issuance. Operationally, our Account Opening Agent opens the underlying accounts for you, and the platform consolidates UK, EU and US entities into one dashboard.

That suits a finance team which has outgrown a single multi-currency account and wants treasury, invoice approval and payroll in one place, provided you accept that protection status varies by which of the three routes above actually holds the balance.

3. Airwallex: an e-money institution built for high-volume, high-country invoicing

Airwallex (UK) Limited holds FRN 900876 as an FCA-authorised electronic money institution, effective 26 November 2018.

Airwallex's own safeguarding page states customer funds are 'fully backed by money that we hold in separate bank accounts', held apart from Airwallex's own funds, and confirms directly that 'Airwallex UK is not a bank and is not covered by the FSCS' for the firm's own insolvency.

Pricing is published on Airwallex's own site: the Explore plan is free once you hold or deposit £10,000 a month, or £19 a month otherwise; Grow is £49 a month; Accelerate is custom-priced.

FX markup on major currencies is 0.5% above interbank, rising to 1% on others, and UK card acceptance runs from 1.30% plus £0.20 per transaction.

The capability boundary: Airwallex's own material positions the account around cross-border collection and payout rather than idle-cash yield, and it does not publish an interest product for GBP balances left sitting in the account.

An operational specific: Global Accounts receive funds in 20+ currencies from more than 70 countries and regions, with local payout reaching 120+ countries, a genuinely wider network than Wise's.

That reach is the real trade-off: a company invoicing customers concentrated in three or four European currencies is unlikely to use the network it would be paying for.

4. Revolut Business: an account moving from e-money to a UK bank licence

Revolut Business runs today on Revolut Ltd, FRN 900562, an FCA-authorised electronic money institution since 11 May 2018.

That is changing. On 11 March 2026 the Prudential Regulation Authority lifted the restrictions on Revolut's UK banking licence, and Revolut Bank UK Ltd, company number 12871051 at Companies House (previously registered as Revolut NewCo UK Ltd until 12 March 2026), launched as a full UK bank able to serve both retail and business customers, with deposit accounts 'protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)' up to the standard limit, per Revolut's own launch announcement.

Revolut says the migration of existing customers from e-money to bank accounts is still under way, so which entity holds a given balance depends on when the account was opened.

Ask Revolut directly which entity holds your specific account before assuming FSCS protection applies to it.

Eligibility is gated by legal home address: Revolut's own eligibility page names 14 countries, including the UK, the EEA excluding Bulgaria, Switzerland and the US. A company registered outside that list cannot apply, regardless of where it trades.

On price, Revolut's own business plans page lists Basic from £10 a month, Grow from £30 a month and Scale from £90 a month, each carrying a monthly FX allowance at the interbank rate: £1,000, £15,000 and £60,000 respectively, before a markup applies beyond the allowance.

The capability boundary: Revolut's own help centre confirms Revolut Business does not provide a credit or overdraft facility, so a company that occasionally needs to run a negative balance has to arrange that with a separate lender.

Revolut Business fits a company already using Revolut personally, or one that wants cards, expenses and FX under a single login, provided it confirms which legal entity currently holds its balance.

5. Payoneer: a receiving network, not a treasury account

Payoneer Payment Services (UK) Limited holds FRN 966835 as an FCA-authorised electronic money institution, effective 13 January 2023.

Payoneer's own pricing page confirms its balances are e-money, safeguarded in the same regulatory sense as Wise's, Airwallex's or Round's distributed e-money, and not covered by the FSCS.

Real prices, taken from Payoneer's own current pricing page: an annual account fee of $29.95 applies only if the account receives under $6,000, or the equivalent, in any 12 consecutive months; receiving via a local-currency account is free; receiving via a non-local-currency account costs 1%, minimum $1; currency conversion on card-triggered transactions runs up to 3.5%.

The capability boundary: Payoneer's own resource pages describe the product around receiving, payouts and marketplace integrations, not treasury or payroll. Local receiving accounts cover around ten currencies, with a further set available globally and a SWIFT USD wire as the fallback for anything else.

One number here does bear on safeguarding rather than on scale: parent company Payoneer Global Inc. reported holding $7.7 billion of customer funds as of 30 June 2026, in its Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on 6 August 2026.

That is the size of the pool your balance sits beside.

Payoneer suits a company paid mainly through marketplaces or by many small international clients. It is a weaker fit for a company whose real need is holding a working multi-currency balance, since the product is built for getting paid rather than for treasury.

What switching would cost or earn you

Take a UK company holding £250,000 of working capital and converting £40,000 a month, £480,000 a year, from GBP to EUR to pay European suppliers. At the mid-market rate of £1 = €1.1678, checked on xe.com on 1 September 2026, that volume is worth roughly €560,500 a year.

Treat this as an illustration, not a quote: your own rate will differ by the minute.

On Wise's published 'from 0.24%' business FX fee, that volume costs from roughly £1,152 a year, though Wise's own pricing page states the percentage varies by currency route and funding method, so treat this as a floor, not a guaranteed number.

On Airwallex's 0.5% markup for major currencies, the same volume costs about £2,400 a year.

On our own FX tiers, the same volume costs £2,400 on Launch (0.50%), £1,440 on Growth (0.30%), or as little as £480 on Enterprise (0.10%), the widest published range of any provider here.

We also quote a flat 15 basis point headline rate elsewhere, so confirm the rate that applies to your plan before you model a single figure.

On Revolut Business's Grow plan, £15,000 of the monthly volume clears at the interbank rate inside the plan's FX allowance; the remaining £25,000 falls outside it and is priced separately, so get a written quote for your actual split.

Now the other half of the decision: what the idle portion of that £250,000 earns while it sits between payment runs. Left in a non-interest e-money wallet, it earns nothing.

Swept into our own Growth-tier BlackRock ICS Sterling Liquidity Fund at the quoted 3.59% AER as of 13 November 2025, the same £250,000 would generate roughly £8,975 a year before the mechanism's own charges.

Your capital is at risk, because a money market fund is not a bank deposit.

Put together: on this stated balance and volume, the FX line alone can vary by close to £2,000 a year depending on provider and tier, and the idle-cash decision is worth several times that difference again.

Rebuild this arithmetic with your own balance and volume before choosing; these figures use the rates published on 1 September 2026 and every one of them will move.

When are we not the right answer?

If your company needs to hold and pay in more than GBP, USD and EUR, we are not the right answer today. Our FX product covers three currencies, against Wise's 40-plus held and sent, or Airwallex's 20-plus with local receiving details.

A company invoicing across a dozen currencies needs one of those two instead.

If your company turns out to be Mercury-eligible after all, meaning it is genuinely US-formed with US operations, none of these five is the right answer. Mercury's own product is built for exactly that structure, with domestic ACH rails and FDIC pass-through insurance that none of the five alternatives replicates.

If the finance team's only real need is a card for team spending, we are not the right answer either, because we list no card product on our site today. Airwallex, Wise and Revolut Business all issue cards.

If you need to be live within a day or two, a simple-structure company is likely to clear Wise's or Airwallex's verification faster than it can stand up our fuller treasury, AP and payroll stack, which is built for more complexity than a single-purpose payments need.

What to test before switching off Mercury

Check your own entity's eligibility first, not the marketing page. Every provider here gates on where your company is legally registered, not on where its customers or investors sit.

Run a real invoice through each shortlisted provider's local account details before committing, rather than trusting a headline currency count.

Ask each shortlisted provider, in writing, which legal entity actually holds your balance, and whether that entity is a bank, an e-money institution, or an introducer to a third party. That answer decides your protection, not the marketing page.

If treasury yield matters to you, ask for the current rate and its as-of date before relying on any AER figure quoted anywhere, including in this article. Then run a payroll cycle or a supplier payment batch in parallel before moving everything across.

Where we would put ourselves. Choose us when the company is UK or EU registered, holds GBP, USD and EUR rather than a long tail of currencies, and the real problem is that treasury, invoice approval and payroll each live somewhere different.

The three-route protection structure set out above is the trade you accept in return, and it is the part to read twice before you move money.

Choose Wise or Airwallex ahead of us when the currency list is the binding constraint, and Airwallex specifically for high country coverage on collections. Choose Revolut Business for cards and expenses on one login, once you have confirmed in writing which entity holds your balance. Choose Payoneer when you are paid mainly through marketplaces.

And if the company turns out to be US-formed with US operations after all, Mercury itself is the better answer, not any of the five.