Is Bangkok Bank London's unique selling point being in London?

[Craig krup]

If you think "marginal" is:

1) HSBC converting £60,000 GBP to Baht at their exchange rate, or

2) Transferring 3 million baht from Thailand without a corresponding FET certificate

then I think you are as delusional as your idea is unrealistic and harebrained.

I won't be contributing to this thread anymore - I prefer reading sensible and constructive content.

I'm glad you won't be contributing because I too prefer sensible and constructive content.

1) Is HSBC so very unncompetitive both on exchange rate and interest rates that they couldn't give you something acceptable for a long-term deposit? Yeah - that's how they became one of the world's dominant banks, and one of the few to sail through the financial crisis; by offering woefully uncompetitive products.

2) You wouldn't be moving baht, would you? You'd be opening a deposit account using sterling, and they'd be giving you baht. They offer trading in baht, baht accounts.......they must already have arrangements in place.

Years ago, as a little experiment, they sent cheques for $1 to a load of rich people. In every single case they cashed them. You'd think that it would be the poor who would be cautious about every penny, and the rich who'd be devil-may-care. But of course the reason the wealthy have money is because they think, plot and plan. The reason the poor have **** all, and lose what little they have, is because they don't think, plan and plot.

[stament]

What was the purpose of the experiment exactly and what was the criteria? I mean did they specifically target rich folk purely to find out if they cashed the cheque or did they also target less affluent individuals?

[chiang mai]

Firstly - You wrote that none of the banks in Thailand have an international presence, my most recent post refutes that point.

Secondly - It is reasonable to presume that a bank with USD 2.5 trillion in assets and a second that is rated the tenth safest bank in the world, probably do most things right.

But in your case, those things probably are not enough to provide you with calm and comfort, perhaps best you stay in the UK under the watchful eyes of whoever you think is watching your funds and the jurisdiction of UK law, good luck with that last point (Northern Rock, Standard Life, RBS et al)!

Byee!

Two things.

Firstly, I didn't say "international presence" I said "no international reputation" such as to make it possible to embarrass them. You still don't pay attention to to differences which - in point of fact - really matter.

Secondly - You (now) say that their capital ratios imply propriety with regard to individual accounts. That's obvious b*******s, and is exactly the kind of ad hoc remark you'll be driven into if you pay no attention early on in a conversation and then have to try to find a way out. The world is full of well capitalized banks - in Russia, the Middle East and elsewhere - which have good balance sheets and dodgy practices with regard to individuals.

What, exactly, does the collapse of Northern Rock or the bailing out of RBS have to do with the integrity of their operation as it affects the retail depositor? Absolutely **** all. As to Northern Rock, and the inability of people to think, I have two colleagues - both graduates - who had £12,000 each in Northern Rock shares. They'd had savings accounts and mortgages with the building society when it floated. I told them repeatedly that if they wouldn't buy the shares for twelve grand then they had to sell them: logic dictated this. They said, "Oh no, that's silly, I got them for nothing, I don't care whether they go up or down". You could talk until you were blue in the face, you could recommend they read Kahneman, you could tell them that companies can and do go bust.....................nothing: a big fat waste of time. What happened when Northern Rock went bust? Jesus wept, they said, "What do you think we should do?"

You suggested I might be Thai bashing earlier on. I'm so not. Most people, regardless of ethnicity, couldn't think their way out of a phone box. Advanced economies have systems in place devised by people with working brains precisely to deprive people of the kinds of choices that they wouldn't be able to exercise without a lot of risk. Try explaining absolutely anything about finance and investments to the average punter - like water on PVC.

The reason we can have three pages and nobody grasp, "Ah, he's asking if they'll fiddle accounts because he thinks if they did there'd be fanny adams he could do about it" is because nobody has thought about what should be obvious, "If they fiddled my account there'd be fanny adams I could do about it".

[incidentally, you do know what an "asset" is in the context of a bank? They've loaned a load of money into existence and entered the loans as assets on the balance sheet. RBS had a "balance sheet" of two trillion. That wasn't an advantage; that was the source of the problem].

I'm out too, for similar reasons, your audience is dwindling, I wonder why that is! Byee.

Edited August 3, 2015 by chiang mai

[Craig krup]

Byee!

I'm out too, for similar reasons, your audience is dwindling, I wonder why that is! Byee.

That's you out twice!

Anyway, after all that you might be right - UOB looks like the option. Say what you like about the Lees - although obviously I wouldn't if you live in Singapore - but they don't muck about. You might get jailed without a proper trial, but never without a proper reason. So I think if there was a problem with your account with UOB the middle managers - if they thought you were in the right - would take your side against the local ataff in Thailand, both to secure their own position and protect the bank's reputation.

BAY have an interesting deposit account which (supposedly) gives you some free health insurance, but I don't think you can have a fixed term account for the visa and I'm always suspicious about the real value of giveaways.

So, starting where we started - how do you find a well-regulated bank where you stand a chance of defending your interests if things turn ugly? - UOB looks like the option.