Some people (myself included) prefer to use a bank like HSBC because there's less risk of insolvency. You'll see the credit ratings of banks tend to be higher than brokers or even brokerages owned by banks like HSBC Broking Services Ltd. One way to look at this is how much of your lifetime earning potential are you going to entrust to a broker. If its high it would be prudent to look into their credit rating.
Dont think the regular HSBC SG account, even for premier, allows for singapore stock market trading. Its just not that common in Singapore. i think only DBS and SCB, maybe Citi bank has that featured in their banking arm.
In singapore most stock transactions go thru the brokers, and the custodian of the stocks are actually the exchange's central depository unit. So your risk of exposure is just the 3 days you paid for the shares until the shares are given to your custody account.
Due to the trading structure differences, banks prefer to just continue their lending and credit card business than dip into the stock equity businesses. And e.g. DBS, if you use their broking service for SG shares, the portfolio is custodized in DBS name instead of your own depository account. Which, if you don't have a large portfolio, becomes costly.
SG account was corporate. Don't have a personal one there.Original Post Deleted
Interest is in diversification. HK is too small a place to put all my money. My UK and Aus accounts are hard to fund from overseas, so something in HK that allowed overseas investments is ideal.
I spent some time trying to set up the interactive brokers account this morning. But was frustrated by their requirement to actually go to the office and sign a piece of paper. Pain in the ass. When trying to set up an appointment, the website would not let me go on any of the days I know I am going to be in Central - and when I rang up to talk to someone it diverted somewhere else (not HK) and they said they could not put me through to HK! The promised "call back" has yet to happen.... several hours later....
My trading is not sophisticated enough to need detailed price information. I assumed thats what you meant by subscription? I'm not day trading, I'm buying some shares every so often and holding them for 10+ years!Original Post Deleted
Our lawyers is a consultant to us, so no, too small for an in-house guy
I remember the stock price feed fees being pretty reasonable with IB. A few dollars a month at most.Original Post Deleted
Ok i stand corrected. Never knew these guys are also into retail brokerage business.Original Post Deleted
But please be aware of the custodian arrangement of SGX shares if you buy through HSBC or even IB.
They hold it in custody for you, and under that case you better be aware of whether their laws are US laws which sometimes allow re-hypothetication (can't remember the spelling). If they don't, i.e. your shares will always be in your segregated account and its bankruptcy remote, then you are on par with the central depository.
Only a couple of years late to this thread but anyway I thought a more detailed explanation might be useful for those not familiar with the system:
1. for non-Australian resident tax payers, non-resident withholding tax is deducted at source on all dividends paid offshore (30% for HK residents) BUT ...
2. franking credits matter because if the amount of the franking credit for tax paid by the company is greater than the amount of non-resident withholding tax that would otherwise be deducted then there is no non-resident withholding tax.
So for most of my Australian listed shares I get to pocket the full cash amount of the divided with no withholding tax deducted. Example: if a company declared a fully franked divided of $100, I would receive and keep the full $100. If the dividend had no franking credits, then I would lose $30 to non-resident withholding tax and only end up with $70.
Incidentally, this is one of the reasons why dividend yields in Australia are quite high: franked dividends are far more tax friendly to investors than taxed capital gains.
New Zealand operates a slightly more complicated system that produces more or less the same results.
Offshore investors need to be a bit careful when looking at yield tables because, as cendrillon points out, the quoted yields generally include both the cash component and the tax credit component attached to the divided for resident investors.
Australia operates a scripless system with shares held directly on a share register and you will be given a unique shareholder number from the share register when your share purchase is completed and the broker passes your details to the relevant share register.Original Post Deleted
When you purchase you can choose to have your shares either "issuer sponsored" or "broker sponsored." Issuer sponsored means that the shares are effectively held through the purchasing broker's account and you will need to sell through them. IIRC, you will still receive dividends etc directly (it's been a very very long time since i've used this option). Issuer sponsored holdings are held directly in your name and so long as you have the shareholder number you were issued with when you purchased them, you can sell through any broker. You will also receive dividends, notices of results etc directly to your e-mail account (or by post if you prefer). You can swap from issuer sponsored to broker sponsored quite easily if you want to.
Shortly after you purchase any shares, you will get a letter or email from the share register asking you to confirm your tax residency (for withholding tax purposes), provide bank account details for payment of dividends and elect whether to receive corporate communications by e-mail or post.
It's all quite painless.
I use a NZ broker which isn't the most cost effective option but it's a 30 year relationship which is worth something to me.
As for working out in advance which dividends have franking credits, I tend to check each company before I make the decision to buy – there are few odd ones like Lend Lease and Sydney Airport which are not technically companies so different tax rules apply.
Looking at the right hand column, it shows a dividend of 80 cents franked at 30% (which is the full franking level) so for a HK resident there should be no non-resident withholding tax deducted – you should have received 80 cents (possibly less any bank fees).Original Post Deleted