Deposit A/C:Foreign Currency-CAD$ SGD$

Hi All,
Could someone tell me how best to hold funds in Canadian dollar and Singapore dollar.
Are there banks in Ireland that have deposit account facilites for these currencies?
thanks in advance
t

tlalor said:

Hi All,
Could someone tell me how best to hold funds in Canadian dollar and Singapore dollar.
Are there banks in Ireland that have deposit account facilites for these currencies?
thanks in advance
t

Click to expand...

try investec , AFAIK they are a south african institution

tlalor said:

Hi All,
Could someone tell me how best to hold funds in Canadian dollar and Singapore dollar.
Are there banks in Ireland that have deposit account facilites for these currencies?
thanks in advance
t

Click to expand...

PTSB offer retail CAD accounts. It is likely that Investec also do.

You might struggle to find a bank that will open a retail SGD account for you.

Ciaran, you always give valuable advice. We am going to Canada next week to visit family. We are considering opening a bank account there which it appears we can do quite easily from enquiries made by family. Giving the concerns about deposits in Ireland, are we doing the correct thing? We are not particularly concerned about interest rates, more concerned about security and maintaining our capital.

Thanks.

The risk associated with a deposit in a typical Canadian bank is obviously much lower than deposits in the junk rated Irish banks.

I assume your bank account in Canada would be in CAD rather than EUR? If so, you obviously take on considerable CAD/EUR FX risk by moving your deposits into CAD. Have you considered offshore EUR options?

tlalor said:

Hi All,
Could someone tell me how best to hold funds in Canadian dollar and Singapore dollar.
Are there banks in Ireland that have deposit account facilites for these currencies?
thanks in advance
t

Click to expand...

NIB offer both currencies, but as has been mentioned elsewhere, unless you have a distinct need to have the money in these currencies - such as potentially buying property in those currencies you are carrying significant fx risk. From recall, SGD tends to track USD like many south-east asian currencies.

Thanks Ciaran. We are considering opening an offshore account with HSBC but I understand that their charges can be extortionate. We already have an account with Rabo. My concern with an offshore account held in euro is, that if Ireland goes back to the punt, would the government insist on the euros being transferred to the punt or a freeze of some kind put on the offshore euro accounts of an Irish resident. The whole thing is confusing for an ordinary individual like myself who is just an avid saver and presumed that our savings would be safe in this country. In the short-term, we will open the Canadian account with a small lodgement and try and get some professional advice thereafter. We also have the option of giving a financial gift to our son who is resident in Canada and let him worry about it! All opinions greatly appreciated.