A UK process agent is a person or company that can receive legal proceedings on your behalf in the United Kingdom. This can be a requirement when you enter into an international transaction that is governed by English law but where your company is not incorporated in the jurisdiction. It is also a common requirement where you have been granted a loan by an institution in the UK.

The English courts will only be able to serve you with court or arbitration proceedings if you can prove that your non-UK company has an address in the country. Typically, you would have agreed this with the institution before the loan was made and it may be included as a term of your contract. A service on the designated process agent will be sufficient to allow you to enforce the terms of your contract and avoid having to go through the costly, time consuming and uncertain processes of trying to validly serve you abroad.

The Role of Process Agents in International Business Transactions

As such, it is a market standard and indeed commonly required by international transaction parties that each party without a presence or representation in England appoints a UK process agent and agrees that service of proceedings on the process agent at their address will constitute service by the rules of the English courts. You can see our full list of registered process agents here. If you have any questions about appointing a UK process agent or would like to speak with one of our team, please do not hesitate to get in touch.