[NickW]

Hi,

I may be looking to move to HK soon, on a 2-3 year placement from my company. I will inevitably need a bank account with all that goes with it (credit card, international fx transfers etc).

My base annual income (excluding bonus) is currently in the HKD 1.0-1.5M range, but what investments I have are based in the UK and it unlikely I will want to move those to HK in the short term.

I'd ideally like full-service banking with platinum credit card etc. and minimal charges (don't we all? haha).

Who would people recommend? I looked at - for example - HSBC and their Premier service looks fine, but I don't really want to maintain a HKD 1M balance with HSBC to qualify etc.

[Icebear]

My experience with HSBC is not good: as long as you are not premier customer you either have to call the hotline (not worth the waiting) or go to the branch office and wait a long time. Their website is good though. Once you are premier you have an account manager but mine very diffecult to get into action. So I opened a Citi Gold account and so far they are far more service minded (phone, email and office) and Citi has good website as well. Initially I tried to open an account with a Europen bank but that proved to be a drama, they are not here for private customers. Citi was fastest with acc opening and credit card, though HSBC was fast as well. You will have to bring some proves of money though if you want to apply for a plat. credit card and if you want premier service you either have to pay a fee (HKD 450 p/m in case your acc is less than 1mio) or transer cash (easy to open GBP acc). Good luck!

[PDLM]

If you have HSBC Premier anywhere then you have it everywhere. So if you maintain an HSBC Premier account in the UK (GBP60K to relationship balance I think) then you get Premier status in HK without having to maintain HK$1M here as well.

[NickW]

My principal problem is that I work in the securities division of an investment bank that insists (for compliance monitoring purposes) that I keep my portfolio with a particular brokerage.

I don't particularly want to liquidate £60K in equities to stick into a cheesy time deposit just so I can jump the queue at the bank.

Thanks for the pointer though.

[KnowItAll]

Citi / Standard Chartered / HSBC - all pretty much the same in terms of quality of service. HSBC does have the best online offering.

HK$ 1M salary or even savings unfortunately wont make a banker in HK get out of bed to do anything for you ... so don't get your expectations too high.

Open a standard powervantage account - the chances are, you'll probably not need much more.

[ejc317]

If you make that much - get Premier ...

[ejc317]

btw - HSBC premie ris more than jumping line at bank lol

I assume from your base salary you're either an associate at a decent / bulge bracket bank or a VP at a boutique / smaller bank

1) Its a total 1m balance combined in terms of investments etc
2) I work at an investment bank as well and they only control securities - you can put your money in a mutual fund or any kind of ETF etc without breakign compliance
3) If your biggest complain is losing ability to trade fully equities - your companies compliance forces you to have a holding period too ... so its not like your equity holdings are any more liquid

Finally, almost all of the bulge bracket banks in hong kong have a corporate relationship with HSBC that voids the 1m minimum.

I work at an investment bank and my minimum is $0

in fac ti just transfered out a bunch of money and now have equivalent of $15k USD in my HSBC HK acct. - so ask around

what bank do you work at?

If its any of the following GS, LB, MS, ML, UBS, CITI, you should be fine

[aussiegal]

I agree with KIA. This is Hong Kong, where a lot of people earn a ton of cash. Many people pay more than HK$1mill a year in rent so I'm not sure if any bank will care about your account if you have no intention of moving any investments across to make it worth their while.

[ejc317]

Yeah seriously ... you do realize a 1st yeasr analyst at an investment bank makes about 650k HKD? lol

1m is about the salary of a 3rd year analyst / associate before bonuses so yeah unless you're pulling in 1m US - they wont really bat an eye cuz its a dime a dozen

[eaurhb]

You can try DBS (a listed bank from Singapore), they only need $500,000 to qualify. The platinum card is annual fee free, they charge lower fee on all other transactions, buying a bank draft is free ! But give higher deposit rate and better exchange rate. They also give you joining gift.