Singapore Bank Acct - Remote Opening

[blancmon229]

My business parter (US citizen) is looking to remotely open a bank account in Singapore at OCBC, DBS, UOB etc...

1. Is it even possible to remotely open an account? If so , how?

2. Are singapore banks over-hyped?

3. Are there any better jurisdictions or banks where your private banker is at your service 24/7, for the same capital requirements as the Singapore bank requires? (and which obviously takes a US citizen)

 

[DeutschSamoaner]

As far as I know, you can open bank details for Singapore in Wise. This means you can receive money from Singapore, and also send it. It is basically a bank account. The problem with Wise is that, if they suspect your transaction, they can close your account.

Not sure about those "real" banks, probably someone here is an expert on Singapore banks and will respond 🙂

 

[Stefano3323]

As DeutschSamoaner mentioned EMIs like Wise and Aspire are ok for remote opening.

For the traditional banks, DBS and UOB requires face-to-face meetings. OCBC can open remotely and minimum deposit is SG$1,000. However, I'm not sure if those meetings can be set by anybody or your agent must be a partner with the bank already.

If you have pre-existing relationships with Standard Chartered they can give you a corporate account for the SG company and they will ask you to do the face-to-face meeting to a branch closer to where you are located. Similar situation with HSBC but no need for pre-existing relationships but initial deposit is easily SG$30,000-SG$50,000.

 

[Clank]

I was able to open a personal account in singapore remotely through HSBC.

I'm Jade member though, but premier I think can do it as well.

 

[alwaysaint]

OCBC was easy to open 1-2 months ago , personal account was free to open, not sure about business account. How are things going now, I don't know. They use mobile app to scan your passport chip (I don't think it can verify anything). Just keep in mind that OCBC has account management fee too and customer service isn't great. The kyc process with their app doesn't like you are behind a VPN or location spoof.

 

[blancmon229]

Thank you everyone for the info.

alwaysaint said:
They use mobile app to scan your passport chip (I don't think it can verify anything).
Click to expand...

From the OCBC Singapore website it says you need to "Hold e-passports from Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia or mainland China" in order to open an account remotely from the app. Was this applicable to you or it didn't matter what passport you use?

Last edited: Aug 18, 2023

 

[alwaysaint]

blancmon229 said:
Thank you everyone for the info.


From the OCBC Singapore website it says you need to "Hold e-passports from Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia or mainland China" in order to open an account remotely from the app. Was this applicable to you or it didn't matter what passport you use?
Click to expand...

Sorry I didn't pay attention to this requirement. I used Chinese Passport. maybe its not suitable to everyone. My bad.

 

[JackAlabama]

blancmon229 said:
My business parter (US citizen) is looking to remotely open a bank account in Singapore at OCBC, DBS, UOB etc...

1. Is it even possible to remotely open an account? If so , how?

2. Are singapore banks over-hyped?

3. Are there any better jurisdictions or banks where your private banker is at your service 24/7, for the same capital requirements as the Singapore bank requires? (and which obviously takes a US citizen)
Click to expand...

The main question here is, depending on your passport and if you have one of the warmongering places.

When the west expands war efforts towards china and pulls thru with the Russian treatment, China will have to retaliate thereafter.
Will Singapore follow thru with it or not?