Singapore’s Banking Edge : A Strategic Choice in Opening Offshore Bank Accounts
A lot of business people in Hong Kong are looking for a way to open overseas bank accounts. Nevertheless, they prefer opening their account remotely to avoid flying to other countries.
There are a few things to know before you choose the countries and the banks to open a bank account outside Hong Kong. Firstly, you need to understand the different types of bank accounts there, and secondly, the different ways to get them. In general, you can find four types of bank accounts in other countries based on their value-added features:
- Personal Banking Account: It is the bank account for everyone and everyday use. You will need a local bank account there if you will be living in the country. This account provides necessary banking service for you to collect payroll, pay residential utility bills, and savings. So, it is the primary account for not only the permanent residents and citizens but also the temporary residents like holders of working VISA and study VISA.
- Business Banking Account: It is the bank account for profit-seeking corporate bodies to carry on their business activities. It works like a personal bank account, but the owner of the account is the organizational body instead of people. The place of incorporation may be different from where the bank is because doing overseas business is quite common nowadays.
- Premium Banking Account: It is the choice of banking for the wealthy who need tailor-made solutions in wealth management.
- Corporate Banking Account: It is an upgrade of the Business Banking Account because it comes with corporate financing service.
From being said above, we can exclude three types of accounts, which are:
- Personal Banking Account: unless you are living or working overseas.
- Premium Banking Account: unless you are super-rich.
- Corporate Banking Account: unless you own a big corporation already.
Therefore, the Business Banking Account is our recommendation to the Hong Kong people.
“But where should we go?”
As Hong Kong is a high-grade international banking hub, we are bold to state that local people do not compromise on banking safety and service quality. So, they are interested in onshore banks rather than banks on offshore islands.
The most favorable choice of country is Singapore.
Why Singapore Business Bank Account ranks the top for Hong Kong people to go banking overseas?
Singapore is attractive to Hong Kong business people because of its stability and safety in the banking industry (Read More: Why Hong Kong (and offshore) companies go to Singapore setting up bank accounts?). On top of that, Singaporean is excellent to work with; they are efficient, hard-working and honest.
Apart from that, some Singaporean banks accept remote bank account opening for overseas companies, including the corporate incorporated in Hong Kong and offshore.
But do not get me wrong at the meaning of remote bank account opening. It does not mean that you can go through the entire application while you are sitting at home. Instead, “remote opening” means you can complete it without travelling to Singapore because you can do it in Hong Kong.
On procedures, opening a Singapore Business Bank is not that much different than banking in Hong Kong. As a part of the bank’s “Know Your Customer” compliance requirement, you have to meet the bank’s people in Hong Kong, hand in the required personal documents copy and business proofs for the bank’s examination, and get ready the cheque to settle the minimum account deposit, which usually starts from SG$30,000.
“However, which Singaporean banks should I go for?”
DBS Bank is the big player in the market, followed by OCBC Bank, UOB Bank and RHB Bank.
As you are not living in Singapore nor having a presence there, it’s time-consuming to pay for visits to each of the banks there. It’s better to have a local guide of Singapore banking industry.
It’s the time our Singapore Banking Intermediary comes to help.
We have been working with the bankers of major Singaporean banks, we keep a list of banks and we update it on a constant basis of the banks accepting risk-level of their clients, so we know which people to be accepted as the company’s account beneficial owners, and also the allowed business nature.
In addition, we do not charge our client if we fail to open the bank account for our client, as we give refund guarantee to them.
What’s more, every people who are interested in opening a Singapore business bank account will receive our Pre-approval Assessment for free-of-charge. This test can give our client the chance to know which bank suit your profile and understand the chance of successful account opening there. If the client does not want to proceed, we do not charge a pennie.