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

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

 

[Forester]

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...

I agree that they are relatively expensive. Yet
1) quite safe (if︀ you choose properly);
2) if you hold some remarkable assets with them, the fees are︁ bearable.

I am not sure︃ whether all EU is restricted; but probably most.

Check HK and Mauritius. (I do︅ not want to say that it is an equivalent, just worth checking.)

1,9% per order is really a lot, for a frequent trader. Yet 0,40% for custody︈ 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 9k︊ per year? (Probably not.)

With all due︌ respect, I really do not think it is just as safe. I do not want︍ to say that IBKR is unsafe but it is not comparable with e.g. Rothschilds, Gutzwiller︎ & Cie, Rahn+Bodmer etc. (Of course it is true that you can go with IBKR️ with much less assets than with the named banks – but this is not the‌ topic, we talk about safety.)

 

[nobel]

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 of︀ 200CHF? 😀

 

[Forester]

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 easily︀ in a few trades, so it is much more important to pay attention to your︁ operations than to custody fees of 0,9% (yes, it is a higher rate, I consider︂ 0,5-0,6 as more common).

Yes, SQ is quite safe, I agree.

🙂 Not 9M. But as for︅ 9k, I would rather take more care about my trades than about this custody fee.︆

 

[nobel]

Liechtenstein like LGT and other banks are just︁ snooty and think they are better. They only pay the fees because of the name︂ and location. But it makes no sense.
I am willing to pay a maximum of︃ 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

 

[nobel]

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]

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 in︁ cash or fixed deposits, I want to invest them into stocks. Better, I want to︂ transfer my depot to Barclays. I can also reach the 300 K then, but I︃ can't find any information on this ...
Next to this post I sent already an︄ Email to Barclays and will let you now once I receive any answer 🙂
Thanks and︅ have a great week.

 

[nobel]

I had an account with BARCLAYS︂ IOM (now closed). I had previously tried to apply for a brokerage account online and︃ it didn't work. It is reserved for UK citizens only. Let us know how it︄ 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.