HSBC Investing

[1989hk]

Hi all,

I plan to stay in Hong Kong for maybe 1-2 years. Possibly a longer after but am not sure.

I have a personnel account in HSBC and my money is just sitting there at the moment.

Normally I would put my savings into a savings account. I don't know if there is such a thing in Hong Kong with a decent interest rate?

Is there a investment scheme with HSBC or another company anyone would recommend.

I do not want to be tied into anything longer than 6 months - 1 year.

Any help is appreciated.

[traineeinvestor]

With 3 month HIBOR currently at less than 0.5%, it's unlikely that any creditworthy bank in HK would offer an interest rate higher than this - why would they if they can borrow through the interbank market at these rates without dealing with the costs of administering a retail account?

Your best bet to get something above zero is to search for introductory offers for "new money" deposit offers - the bank offers an above market interest rate for the first XX month term deposit after which it will revert to the usual close to zero rate.

[pin]

ZA which is a new online only bank offers something like 1%.

If you want your money liquid then you are going to struggle to get anything more than 1%.

[TheBrit]

With 3 month HIBOR currently at less than 0.5%, it's unlikely that any creditworthy bank in HK would offer an interest rate higher than this - why would they if they can borrow through the interbank market at these rates without dealing with the costs of administering a retail account?

New customer acquisition.

[1989hk]

All HSBC jnvestments schemes don't give much return short term?

[pin]

All HSBC jnvestments schemes don't give much return short term?

Sure they do, but then you take on short term risk. If you want to protect your capital, its very hard in the short term.

[Paxbritannia]

The sign for the SCB in Shek Tong Tsui I walked past the other day said best interest rate for HKD time deposit was 0.9% but it also offered 6% on USD, surprisingly. If it were FX-linked then they were sneaky not describing it in that way (normally it's clear when it's that product they're referring to).

[freeier]

With 3 month HIBOR currently at less than 0.5%, it's unlikely that any creditworthy bank in HK would offer an interest rate higher than this - why would they if they can borrow through the interbank market at these rates without dealing with the costs of administering a retail account?

Your best bet to get something above zero is to search for introductory offers for "new money" deposit offers - the bank offers an above market interest rate for the first XX month term deposit after which it will revert to the usual close to zero rate.

that's not very true though..
there are various reasons..
- the perceived stability of CASA that can go into a different bucket in risk computation for the bank
- the perceived 'lessor usage of interbank money market' means more stable bank
- and honestly, how many guys actually do use 1m/3m hibor to borrow/lend, not much these days.

[traineeinvestor]

- and honestly, how many guys actually do use 1m/3m hibor to borrow/lend, not much these days.

Don't know about the volume of interbank lending but would assume it's fairly significant. In any case, a huge volume of loans are linked to HIBOR - including mortgages, bonds and revolving credit facilities.

[bdw]

Standard Chartered have been offering reasonable term deposit rates for existing customers the last 6 months, and all using their mobile app so I have been able to take advantage of them from overseas. They were offering 1.5% for $100k for 3 months. I did this a few times.

Just logged into the app now and they are only offering 0.6% now. 0.7% over $1m. Seems they have reduced it. Still better to put any savings you have into one of these for 3 months than have it sit in your regular account. Even better now that it can be done in a few seconds on the app, no need to fart around in the branch.