opening a China Bank account a good investment now?

[Dimsumyumyum]

with our bad market right now, would it be a good idea to open a RMB china bank account and earn their interest of 4%?

[PDLM]

The problem is the restrictions on movement of currency. I don't have sufficient confidence in the Chinese banking system and regulations to be sure I could get my money back out again when I wanted to.

I do have some money in RMB with HSBC in order, I hope to profit from the exchange rate movements more than the interest.

Chinese Bonds are also a good option if you can get your hands on them - they offer coupons around 3%, but supply in HK in limited.

[hktraveller]

China is pretty mcuh unpredictable as the stupid visa issues show once more.
Atill they have a pretty tempting offer right now. I wouldn't put more cash there that I can afford to wait for if they changed the rules. If you have a HKID (which is the requirement for opening a RMB account), you can open a HSBC account in China and wire RMB there (limit is 80k per day). These are put into a special HK-RMB account in China, fetch the high interest of a fixed deposit
(up to 5.xx%) and they say you can wire any amount back to HK any given day. - that's the rule today.

[YvonneHau]

Are you intending to put money as one lump sum or as regular deposits into the account? There is a good account which has minimal risk and an interest rate of 5.7%, but this is for a lump sum account.

[krypton]

Are you intending to put money as one lump sum or as regular deposits into the account? There is a good account which has minimal risk and an interest rate of 5.7%, but this is for a lump sum account.

Can HK residents open such accounts. I thought the RMB account we open with HK banks dont provide that kind of interest

[Dimsumyumyum]

Are you intending to put money as one lump sum or as regular deposits into the account? There is a good account which has minimal risk and an interest rate of 5.7%, but this is for a lump sum account.

Lump sum, and what account are referring to?
and is there are time limit?

[hktraveller]

Can HK residents open such accounts. I thought the RMB account we open with HK banks dont provide that kind of interest

In Hong Kong the interest rate on RMB is below 1 percent. It is only in China that RMB fetches serious interest and only on longer time deposits.
If you do carry trades on RMB they currently pay you 1.3% for short positions (borrowing). That has been as high as 11% a few months back and is always jumping up and down. But with the strong appreciation of the RMB it is an almost guaranteed loss unless you hedge it with real RMB that fetch interest in China which leaves the risk that they charge interest some day on the trades.

[Dimsumyumyum]

Can HK residents open such accounts. I thought the RMB account we open with HK banks dont provide that kind of interest

i wasn't interested in opening a HK bank account as they dont have any interest on your saving at all. I was referring to opening an bank account in China. Check out the rate on time deposit for 6-12months? all over 3%

Deposit Rates

[YvonneHau]

To quickly clarify, the 5.7& is for a HK account.

As for opening a RMB account, do you need to have an address in China beforehand to get that rate, or can you get that rate if you gave them a HK account. Also, even though their interest rate is higher isn't that half of inflation? which is approximately similar to what we have got in HK?