Banking in Singapore vs. Switzerland

Switzerland and Singapore are two of the most commonly known asset havens for people who want to bank overseas and today I'm going to break down the differences and my thoughts on both of them

I'm not going to lie. I think some feathers will be ruffled in this because you've gone a banking industry in Europe

and you've got this servicing industry. The lawyers, the accounts, the trustees, those kind of people who are all very motivated to keep Switzerland as the beyond and all banking

I'm going to give you my thoughts on who I think should use Switzerland who should use Singapore maybe you want to use both so let's get into it

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Open to everybody. So Switzerland versus Singapore. Let's talk about my overall thoughts on these having used both of them

Having the approach banks having a company that has a ton of R&D or constantly in touch with people who are constantly looking for new

opportunities for our clients constantly trying to develop relationships and I'm a person who has been fortunate to be somewhat successful and

Once places to put money now in both of these places. They're going to go beyond the typical bank account

I can hear what some people are saying why do I want to put on my money in the bank?

A quality private bank or even a priority bank, which maybe what some people want to consider if you're more of an entrepreneur

You want more transactional services. It's going to have access to investments. It's not just going to be park your money and watch it in a

Right away or watch it, you know, be put in term deposits

And so you're going to have access to number different investments. Obviously a private bank's going to sell you a whole bunch of stuff

We have got a guy here who works in the private banking world. Yeah, their job is to push product

And so that's why I think priority banking may be beneficial Switzerland to me falls in more of the private banking realm

You're going to go there. You're going to open an account. It's more of like, all right. Let us tell you what to do is divide

Hey, here's what we suggest

Things are going to be a little more slower a bit more methodical. There's going to be a bit more

What I call the legacy brand effect right and so that's going to be something that slows some people down

But you're going to get a relatively high quality of service

Singapore I believe is more transactional. It is the place that has not been successful for hundreds of years

It is obviously an extremely successful country an extremely wealthy and I believe in extremely safe country now

But there's still some understanding of like what got us here

All right. I'm not saying a Swiss one doesn't have that but I think Singapore is a little

Maybe scrapier is a little bit of an aggressive war, but you know, they they understand what they're doing

And so I find you know, Singapore to be more transactional

Switzerland you can often open an account remotely

Okay, Singapore you're generally speaking need to go there and so what are they both can offer?

They're both in offer investments as I said in Singapore often not to Americans now in Switzerland

You're often not going to get an account if you're American in fact there is a banker too

Where if you're a former American they don't want to take you you renounce your citizenship

Sorry, we don't want it says it in the past for born the USA out you go

So but they're both going to offer investments if you can get in

Again, if you're an American Singapore do do I think some SEC restrictions the banks there generally don't allow you to participate

They're generally going to offer you multi currency accounts and so if you're sitting there watching the euro

Go below the dollar for the first time in over two decades and you want to park some money in euros

You're not sure what you want to do with it, but you're exploring opportunities. Hey, let me block this in you can do that now

I understand you can do that with accounts like why is you can open an account in the United States for example

Put dollars in hold in euros at the balance

Yeah, not so sure that works for like two million euros. I think works for like two thousand euros

But if you want a bank a strong stable banked put a lot of money

Let's say you're looking at doing a golden visa. Let's say you're looking at doing citizenship

Let's say you're looking at just buying a big property somewhere and you want to start to dollar cost average in

You can do that multi currency same thing if you want to just be in different currencies

Hey, I think the Swiss frank is better or hey. I mean I'm in euros now

But I want to be in US dollars because the interest rates better

Well, I'm figuring out what to do with my cash in this upcoming era of

Opportunities right. Let me at least get three percent versus zero percent

So multi currency strong reputation no doubt both are strong stability

I mean look at the big three banks in Singapore where people are probably gonna start

They are all according to most of the studies that rank banks

Stability and safety in the top 15 or 20 all three of them right and they're all generally right next to each other

Switzerland obviously has so many banks the banks aren't such big names

They're not up to publicly traded as the Singaporean banks are

So they're not necessarily gonna be in the top 50 there are a few

But no doubt you know stability strong reputation both offer

the Swiss

In terms of opening the count I mean more focused on where your tax resident so if you're living in some of the places that we talk about being tax

Resonant and they may sniff at that they may turn their nose up if you're living in a place like an iron

Which has a tax friendlyness if you're looking looking at place like a portrait or the UK or Malters

Cypress and of the tax friendly places in their backyard they may turn their nose up at some of those places

But I think generally if you're in Europe

You're probably in better shape if they take Americans if you're in the US you could be in decent shape

But if you're going to you know be tax resident in Barbados

You know this is really bothers this we have a minute of problems with the Barbados

Whereas Singapore is gonna be a lot more flexible on that

And so I think Singapore is also much more direct

Here's what we take here's we don't take talk to bank a couple years ago. Hey with Brexit. We don't want UK citizens

Okay, you know that wasn't all three the banks that was one of the banks that was their policy

And that was pretty straightforward and they'll just tell you right off the bat. I mean banks are banks

But in Switzerland's much more nebulous even at the point of what's the minimum deposit

How much do you think where's you go to Singapore?

350,000 saying but all right we'll let you in for 250 right

That's kind of our unstated rule. So things in Switzerland a lot less clear and so if you're not

Entrepreneur like myself, you know to me I don't necessarily care how much money you make if you're still that entrepreneur

Don't vibe just tell you what the rules are. I don't want it to be like no, we're really thinking if you should come here

I know all the all the lawyers and Switzerland. He doesn't understand Switzerland

I understand Switzerland. Well the majority. Let's be honest. It's very nebulous

Do we want you do we not want?

Okay, so

Singapore banks much more open you do see some Swiss banks like chasing after certain entrepreneurs

But it's probably not gonna be you or I

So in terms of approach do you want more transactional? Do you want to manage your own money do you want to you know make and receive payments do you want to

You know convert currencies. I have a couple of accounts in Singapore

And the biggest one one is the most great great banker

I use the lower level one because it's just easier to maintain the lower level priority banking account

I could upgrade to the higher levels just not worth it for man or we need it

And so I still get a pretty good guy who manages my stuff if I want to exchange you know larger amounts of foreign currency

The rates are better than you'd find it a wise better than you find pretty much anywhere else and he does that if I want to send payments

I can pretty much do it myself up to

a couple hundred thousand dollars. I don't have to go anywhere otherwise I fill it a little form. I sent it to him. They call and they send it out

If it's like you know half a million they send it out

Fees are incredibly low sent like a couple hundred thousand dollars to Europe enough at long ago

And it costs I don't think like a hundred euros or something

So compared to Switzerland where you're going to opt to pay a percentage of inward and outward transactions

So you're just losing money at the bat Singapore is more transactional

They will offer you services again in line with what a bank does. They're not you know hard for wealth managers anywhere in the world

I'll think

But Singapore will offer you services to make investments

But there's still going to be more involved with you like hey can I call you and confirm to that's what you want to do

And you can also make your own investments. You've got unit trust you've got mutual funds

You've got all kinds of different products. You can buy stocks you might you know

Numerous equity exchanges around the world in a Singaporean bank by Singapore government debt

Which the yields are up on obviously

And so you can kind of self serve you just like doing that hey every month

I go in they have actually rolled out better recurring purchase functions and some of the Singaporean banks

Just right of the app you've got great apps you have a great self service

You've got I think great service if you need to call someone it is designed lower fee more transactional use the account

Do that Switzerland and that region in general is more of hey bring in the money

You know, it should stay here longer term

Let us handle it and so I told you my experience not in Switzerland, but in Lake Ninchedon where the private banker

I one time said hey I haven't heard back from you this investment. He's like I'm like just take

Tell me how long I should expect to hear back from you

Sometimes

The day and sometimes three weeks you say and by the way

I'm all for hiring people in different parts the world we do that here

But if you're going to a Swiss bank thinking you're going to work with some guy from Zurich

You're probably wrong right me living Zurich, but if you're thinking like that's why you're going

Then you're mistaken and so you're basically in some cases being told like hey you need to wait

We're going to handle it. We know it's best for you. That's my approach certainly there's some very wealthy people

How many disagree with me?

Is someone who I think is is been pretty successful. I mean I think

I don't see the I don't see the need to take this approach with ultra high net worth clients

Online banking and Singapore is probably going to be better some Swiss banks don't even have it or it's just

Really rudimentary or it's really difficult so

Because they have a bank in Lake Ninchedon that I had just very difficult and so I look at Switzerland and Lincolnstein kind of as as part of it

And so we have some Swiss banks that we work with or they're just really friendly and they do a good job in the

Except Americans the numbers are not small and so Singapore you're going to get in potentially for the lowest six figures in US dollar terms

Switzerland you're probably looking at particularly for an American closer to a million dollars and up again the things are often more

Nebulus negotiable would have you and so it's a higher price point. It's more of you know, hey you guys take care of it

I'll tell you what what we are doing with the bank in that region is hey let's just part let's just move this amount of money and it's let it sit

We talk to the bank. Okay, if you want to open the count just park that amount of money. We don't care. You're gonna pay a one time fee of a

A bunch of basis points if you have presented out you'll pay a bunch of basis points more and in the meantime

We're not gonna really charge you much so that was a good Swiss bank

That we can just park money and that's almost I think you should be doing it if you're trying to like

Constantly buying in selling a real estate and sending money in and out like paying your child's tuition

I would I would go somewhere more transactional in Switzerland if you're planning on moving it in and letting it sit there

And you want that kind of prestige then you should go there. Listen, it's my

goal here to share with you what I think the real situation is I'm not a fan of legacy brands for the sake of legacy brands

I drink coke because I like coke more than our sea coal

If our sea coal had the same taste, I would drink that and I wouldn't be worried about the brand

I think too many people are worried about the brand and I think that

Just in all of my experience personally right of contacting Swiss banks and just you know getting some pretty

Shabby treatment quite frankly again a banks a bank. They're all gonna act like bankers to a certain extent

But I think in Singapore you're probably gonna get a lot of zipier service in a lower cost with more options

Especially for none of the American I'm not saying Swiss one doesn't have a role it obviously

It just said has some role in my plans

Personally in for my business

But I think you need to understand the difference and there's a lot of competitors that are coming up

I think Singapore for me for someone who's more hands on and needs to use their account

Probably edges out something that you'd find in a Switzerland or a LinkedIn Stein