Bank geographical diversification

[inector]

Many big banks like HSBC, Citibank, SC sell this idea of opening extra accounts in their foreign branches. In your experience is it worth it or better to go with a local bank instead?

 

[Sols]

Not all multinational banks are the same.

HSBC pretends to do it well and pretends it's smooth. In reality, it's anything but.

SC does a much better job of it.

Citibank varies enormously (more than SC and HSBC) from country to country. In many places, Citibank is a more or less recent acquisition (it was another bank and has been taken over by Citibank). This affects how smoothly different locations work together.

So in some cases, a local bank is a better choice and in some cases going with a multinational bank is better. There's no one size fits all.

 

[Martin Everson]

Go with any bank with credible financial strength. Citibank closed my account years ago in UAE due to Citibank UAE not taking non-residents any longer. This was after Citibank SG sold me the idea of booking some of my assets in jurisdictions like UAE. I left the entire group after this .

Moving forward the idea of HSBC with access to its 30 or so international banking centers is good on paper same with SC but reality is something else. Take for example Coutts they closed their Swiss and Monaco office and left clients out to dry. HSBC did the same in Monaco and Bahamas and now with retail banking in US which shouldn't affect you if your a non-retail client of HSBC.

So if your going with a large group to use their international presence you need to consider that many of these international banks will continue to downscale their presence in certain markets in years to come.

I personally now prefer to go with credible local banks due to geopolitical risks in current climate and this culture of exiting markets.

 

[jafo]

Coutts they closed their Swiss and Monaco office and left clients out to dry.

What happened to the clients? Did they get their money back?

 

[Martin Everson]

What happened to the clients? Did they get their money back?

Yes they got money back.