hsbc uae or hsbc expat jersey - barclays channel islands

[Martin Everson]

FYI. HSBC has thrown in the towel in terms of doing brokerage in house and have instead partnered with IBKR.

https://www.financemagnates.com/forex/interactive-brokers-and-hsbc-launch-global-trading-platform/

They have rolled out IBKR to HSBC UAE and soon to whats left of their global retail entities.

https://www.hsbc.ae/investments/products/worldtrader/


P.S Important to note is that HSBC has been selling off a lot of their retail and various other banking operations last year (2024) such as:

HSBC France
HSBC Canada
HSBC Argentina
HSBC Mauritius
HSBC Russia
HSBC Armenia
HSBC Germany (private banking)
HSBC South Africa (wholesale business)

This all happened just last year and before that tons of other global retail operations have been sold off or closed down. Plus further more planned:

HSBC Malta (has been for sale for a while but deal with APS Bank failed but another will come along)

The bottom line is there is a clear pattern of retreat from a lot of markets and a move to focus on investment and some private banking. Basically if your not a HSBC Private Banking client (min £1.5m) in channel isles or an investment banking client stay away from HSBC group.

Premier Banking clients are just retail clients sadly and service will be terrible as moral must be down with staff is my guess.

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Please note my posts should not be taken as financial or tax advice. Please seek professional advice in that respect.

 

[Forester]

PhantomOf ThePits said:
Is there another Jersey bank you would recommend instead?
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Martin Everson said:
Sadly not at moment. All these banks have changed for the worse over last few years.
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Barclays Isle of Man included (there is Barclays at Jersey too but all international clients are directed to IOM)? I have no recent experience but I value them quite good...

PhantomOf ThePits said:
Am wondering which jurisdiction to add besides Singapore as some Swiss/Liechtenstein banks are still quite expensive for what they offer...
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I agree that they are relatively expensive. Yet
1) quite safe (if you choose properly);
2) if you hold some remarkable assets with them, the fees are bearable.

nobel said:
But I think you have to live outside the EU for BARCLAYS IOM to be possible. EU citizens are excluded.
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I am not sure whether all EU is restricted; but probably most.

PhantomOf ThePits said:
another 'proper' banking jurisdiction besides SG,CH,Liechtenstein which would provide that.
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Check HK and Mauritius. (I do not want to say that it is an equivalent, just worth checking.)

nobel said:
Banks in Switzerland and Liechtenstein are completely unsuitable for buy stocks/ETFs because of the extreme fees. 1.9% per order (10K= 190€ fee) and 0.40% custody fee completely absurd.
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1,9% per order is really a lot, for a frequent trader. Yet 0,40% for custody is quite OK, you can face even 0,90% or so. And if you have, say, 1M with them (it means you are a smaller client), will you care about 9k per year? (Probably not.)

nobel said:
IBRK would be only 0.08% (10K= 8€ fee) per order and no custody fee and just as safe.
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With all due respect, I really do not think it is just as safe. I do not want to say that IBKR is unsafe but it is not comparable with e.g. Rothschilds, Gutzwiller & Cie, Rahn+Bodmer etc. (Of course it is true that you can go with IBKR with much less assets than with the named banks ”“ but this is not the topic, we talk about safety.)

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I am just a simple countryman. Anything I say is only a personal opinion, not a certified advice 🙂

If you think it makes sense, you can like it; if opposite, please, tell me, why I am wrong...

 

[nobel]

Forester said:
Yet 0,40% for custody is quite OK, you can face even 0,90% or so. And if you have, say, 1M with them (it means you are a smaller client), will you care about 9k per year? (Probably not.)
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Are you serious that 9K doesn't bother me with 1M securities? Of course it bothers me. Why throw 9K out the window when you can do it for 0K? If you don't like IBKR then take Swissquote, it's really safe and you pay max. 200CHF a year even with 1 billion assets. Or you like to pay 9M per year instead of 200CHF? 😀

 

[Forester]

nobel said:
Are you serious that 9K doesn't bother me with 1M securities? Of course it bothers me.
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Well, may be; it's completely on you. Anyone's mileage may vary.

nobel said:
Why throw 9K out the window when you can do it for 0K?
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If I can get an equivalent product for 0k, I won't buy it for 9k, definitely. The core is that
1) I do not consider these products (IBKR and e.g. LGT) equivalent;
and mainly
2) this is a different case: if you work with 1M worth securities, you can lose or gain 9k totally easily in a few trades, so it is much more important to pay attention to your operations than to custody fees of 0,9% (yes, it is a higher rate, I consider 0,5-0,6 as more common).

nobel said:
If you don't like IBKR then take Swissquote, it's really safe and you pay max. 200CHF a year even with 1 billion assets.
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Yes, SQ is quite safe, I agree.

nobel said:
Or you like to pay 9M per year instead of 200CHF? 😀
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🙂 Not 9M. But as for 9k, I would rather take more care about my trades than about this custody fee.

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I am just a simple countryman. Anything I say is only a personal opinion, not a certified advice 🙂

If you think it makes sense, you can like it; if opposite, please, tell me, why I am wrong...

 

[nobel]

Forester said:
Well, may be; it's completely on you. Anyone's mileage may vary.
If I can get an equivalent product for 0k, I won't buy it for 9k, definitely. The core is that
1) I do not consider these products (IBKR and e.g. LGT) equivalent;
and mainly
2) this is a different case: if you work with 1M worth securities, you can lose or gain 9k totally easily in a few trades, so it is much more important to pay attention to your operations than to custody fees of 0,9% (yes, it is a higher rate, I consider 0,5-0,6 as more common).
Yes, SQ is quite safe, I agree.
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Liechtenstein like LGT and other banks are just snooty and think they are better. They only pay the fees because of the name and location. But it makes no sense.
I am willing to pay a maximum of 0.10% fees for trading. SQ can be used to store assets but not for trading. Better to keep everything separate.

 

[daniels27]

Reminds me of this
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Thread 'Are Swiss banks expensive or not?'​

Jan 3, 2025

nobel said:
dukascopy.bank sounds good. However, I see now, fees from assets 1.5% per year, is that serious? Then of course not acceptable.

Maintenance fee 1.5% per year (The maintenance fee (cumulative swap points) is charged monthly for the assets held in the previous month. The fee is calculated from the sum of the end-of-day balances of the investments' * (maintenance fee in % / 360). ja334¤¤#
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Just put some cash there and don't do any trading.

• daniels27
• Replies: 33
• Forum: Offshore Bank & EMI Accounts

 

[nobel]

daniels27 said:
Reminds me of this
[COLOR=#ea80fc] D [/COLOR]

Thread 'Are Swiss banks expensive or not?'​

Jan 3, 2025

nobel said:
dukascopy.bank sounds good. However, I see now, fees from assets 1.5% per year, is that serious? Then of course not acceptable.

Maintenance fee 1.5% per year (The maintenance fee (cumulative swap points) is charged monthly for the assets held in the previous month. The fee is calculated from the sum of the end-of-day balances of the investments' * (maintenance fee in % / 360). ja334¤¤#
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Just put some cash there and don't do any trading.

• daniels27
• Replies: 33
• Forum: Offshore Bank & EMI Accounts

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Yes, 1.5% is just crazy, even the customer who does it.old)(#

 

[daniels27]

There are people willing to pay for such service. That's why the offer exists.

 

[chris85b]

nobel said:
But I think you have to live outside the EU for BARCLAYS IOM to be possible. EU citizens are excluded.
Stocks/ETFs are probably only possible from 300K € deposits.
You have to deposit at least 120K € or counter currency otherwise it costs 45 € per month in fees.

Here is the original page: https://international.barclays.com/who-we-help/international-clients/
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I would like to come back to this.
Is there any information about the possibility of holding Stocks/ETF with a certain amount of investment? (the mentioned 300 K). The website unfortunately doesn't say much ...
I am willing to open an account with BARCLAYS IOM. But the minimum required balance of 100 K GBP I wouldn't want to hold in cash or fixed deposits, I want to invest them into stocks. Better, I want to transfer my depot to Barclays. I can also reach the 300 K then, but I can't find any information on this ...
Next to this post I sent already an Email to Barclays and will let you now once I receive any answer 🙂
Thanks and have a great week.

 

[nobel]

chris85b said:
I would like to come back to this.
Is there any information about the possibility of holding Stocks/ETF with a certain amount of investment? (the mentioned 300 K). The website unfortunately doesn't say much ...
I am willing to open an account with BARCLAYS IOM. But the minimum required balance of 100 K GBP I wouldn't want to hold in cash or fixed deposits, I want to invest them into stocks. Better, I want to transfer my depot to Barclays. I can also reach the 300 K then, but I can't find any information on this ...
Next to this post I sent already an Email to Barclays and will let you now once I receive any answer 🙂
Thanks and have a great week.
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I had an account with BARCLAYS IOM (now closed). I had previously tried to apply for a brokerage account online and it didn't work. It is reserved for UK citizens only. Let us know how it is now.

 

[chris85b]

Barclays Hotline says the same than the HSBC one. You can read the details in my other post (see below).
In short, both banks don't offer broker accounts, where the deposited money can be used to invest into stocks/ETF of your own choice.

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Post in thread 'HSBC Premier Lifehack'​

Mar 11, 2025

chris85b said:
This question had been asked 2 times in this thread, but not yet answered (and I also don't know).

It would really be nice to know, what can I do with the money deposit? In my case, I want to invest in the stock market or transfer my existing portfolio to them. This question is also still open for the Barclays IOM (see other thread). The websites really don't give much information about this. I sent an email to both (HSBC Jersey and Barclays IOM) and await feedback. Will let you know also here once any news arrive.
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I talked to HSBC. The minimum deposit requirement is only...

• chris85b