Introduction

HSBC Group is clearly dominant in Hong Kong. HSBC (HongKong and Shanghai Banking Corp) is the biggest player in the market, and Hang Seng Bank, majority owned by HSBC, is the second largest. For commercial banking for your small offshore company, or a simple personal savings type account, you will likely end up at one of these two banks. There are other large commercial banks in Hong Kong, such as Bank of China, DBS and Standard Chartered. They are typically a lot less willing than HSBC to open accounts for non-residents of Hong Kong.

Things to consider

You could benefit from an offshore account if:

– You need to make international payments or have accounts in different currencies.

– You live outside your home country.

– You move regularly between different countries.

– You’re looking for an economically stable home for your money.

– You’re thinking of retiring abroad.

Summary

HSBC in Hong Kong, for example, is not really interested in opening personal savings accounts for non-residents. When opening corporate accounts they want to see a connection with Asia and they want to see evidence of a real, active business. The benefit is that their transaction fees on wire transfers are much lower than in Switzerland, so for active business this is ideal.

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