Hi,
Are any of you guys living/residing in Cambodia,or have bank accounts there???
Do you find the banks reliable? Trustworthy??
Any problems getting your money out or transferring in and out of the Country??
Could any of you who know pm please?
Thanks
Didn't do any banking while I was there but noticed ANZ Bank has a presence there. ANZ is an Australian bank so they should be reliable. Can't help, otherwise.
Originally Posted by Beachlover
ANZ , I will check as I have not yet come across that bank.
The ones pushing are Amret,ANK I believe and Canadia. They are offering some high interest rates on US Dollar accounts but my bankers in Singapore are not enthusiastic about them.
I am trying to work out if this lack of enthusiasm is due to an unwillingness to lose an account or genuine concerns as to the liquidity of the Cambodian banks.
Thanks anyway,
Bernie Madoff was offering extraordinarily high returns year after year. Even billionaires handed their money over to him. After all, who wouldn't trust the former chairman of the stock exchange with a proven long term track record?
Look Kevin, here is the only thing you need to know: high interest = high risk.
Maybe put Bernie's picture on the dollar bill just as a reminder:
[attachment=0:3q5qeon3]bernie-madoff-looks-like-george-washington.jpg[/attachment:3q5qeon3]
It's Cambodian operation is actually branded "ANZ Royal Bank" so it must be a JV with a local company or government: http://www.anzroyal.com/en/Personal/
ANZ (Australia and New Zealand Banking Group) is the fourth largest bank in Australia. In their operations in Asia they're said to be targeting high net worth individuals.
I think Madoff was running (pretending to run) a managed fund with no guaranteed returns (could be wrong). Not a cash management account.
Not sure about Cambodia, but bank accounts in most countries have certain regulations regarding liquidity and the guaranteeing of capital behind them, so the usual high returns = high risk rule isn't so relevant.
Yeah, like Iceland!!! Wow are you naive, Beachlover. You're clueless.
What the hell does Madoff have to do with the security of bank accounts or high interest cash management accounts in Cambodia?
Greed for high returns. But you are too blind to see the connection. That's why I brought up Iceland. And if it weren't for the TRILLIONS that the USA threw into their banks that scammed the pubic for years on end many there would have gone under too, and for trading worthless instruments not at all unlike Madoff's. Once Glass-Steagall was repealed under Clinton, the banks became veritable casinos.
Nor has the last act been written regarding the current banking situation in the West. Do you think gold, silver and many other commodities are setting new highs because people feel very cozy with their currencies?
Read about the capitalization of Cambodian banks before you go spouting off at the mouth. How deep are the pockets of the Cambodian government? The security of the banks is only as good as the government behind them. And even a deposit in a Cambodian branch of ANZ will only be backed by Cambodia, not Australia or New Zealand, despite the location of the mother bank.
And this just scratches the surface. But that's all I have time to waste on you Beachlover. Go out and learn the score.
Madoff was not trading bogus investments...he wasn't trading AT ALL. Madoff is only interesting because he was a former chairman of NASDAQ, a true insider, who didn't need the money, and made a choice to screw his friends. He's an outlier. The problem in citing Madoff here is that he did not represent institutionalized corruption (legalizing corruption by sheltering it through acts of Congress). Madoff was practicing the kind of corruption that is unsanctioned.
But back to the high-yield account thing. I have no experience with Cambodian banks, but there should be a way to determine the source of those high returns. In this particular case you will want to consider that this quoted interest rate is a NOMINAL yield (yield that does not consider the inflation rate). The inflation rate number I have for Cambodia is 5.20% That inflation rate is likely much higher than the inflation rate of your home country/currency. If your home inflation rate is 0%, then a Cambodian account would have to pay you 5.20% just to break even!
Before opening an account in ANY foreign country you need to ask yourself what the purpose is. If you are trying to increase your current income you should compare the Cambodian bank interest rate with other options you have available (like bond ETF's, bond mutual funds, individual bonds, foreign government bonds, etc). This is not financial advice, but consider ticker symbol "FAX" (NYSE) for example. "FAX" is the "Aberdeen Asia-Pacific Income Fund", an ETF, that yields 5.40% right now with high liquidity (you can buy/sell it in a microsecond). If an account offered you 5.40% but required you to lock the money up for a specific period (like some types of bank deposits) then obviously you'd pick the one with the better liquidity (FAX, in this case). In addition, you will want to consider physical access (do you live in Cambodia, do you visit often, are you likely to be able to enter the country legally in the future(Visa risk)?) If your reason for being interested in foreign bank accounts is for asset protection (protection from an ex-wife, the tax man, court judgment, etc) , then even a 0% rate might be fine. All depends on your needs.
I should also mention that if your home currency is not USD (this Cambodian account is USD denominated) then you are taking currency risk; not necessarily a bad thing, it just means that opening this account would position you as long USD, short your base currency. Might be a nice play if you come from a Euro or BPound country.
Dboy
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