The Best Offshore Bank

In response to questions we frequently receive about selecting the best offshore bank we’ve decided to put together this article to help you determine which offshore banking provider is best for your needs.

Because the best offshore bank for me may not be the best for you because each financial service provider is as unique as your own personal requirements for it, you should base your selection decision on the following five key points.

1) The Offshore Haven

There are literally dozens of offshore havens all offering various degrees of privacy, security and tax efficiency yet some are far more stable or suitable than others.

You need to consider which offshore jurisdictions can fulfil your own personal requirements for an offshore centre.  For example, if you reside in Europe a European offshore jurisdiction may not suit your objectives for opening an offshore bank account because of the EU Savings Tax Directive 2005. 

On the other hand a European offshore haven may suit you down to the ground because some like the Isle of Man have fantastic consumer protection schemes in place to protect the assets of an investor or account holder.

Think about why you want an offshore bank account in the first place and this will immediately rule in or out certain offshore havens around the world.  This will narrow your shortlist down quite substantially.

2) Offshore Bank Secrecy

Next you might like to think about the degree of secrecy you will be afforded by your offshore bank.  Offshore bank records are not always as private as you might think they are!  Referring back to the EU Savings Tax Directive once again to illustrate this point, those with bank deposits in one country affected by the directive and who reside in another country affected by the directive can have complete disclosure of their bank account deposits, interest earned and personal details passed between countries.

Also worth bearing in mind is that some offshore havens are frowned upon by the wider world because they operate slightly outside the scope of the laws relating to anti money laundering.  You’d be best advised to avoid these types of offshore haven and the banks that only operate in such havens as some are far from legitimate!

3) Customer Care

In this day and age internet banking is all the rage - online transaction, statements and account summaries add a massive degree of flexibility and simplicity to banking for us all - but at the same time we all sometimes have a need to speak to a banking adviser and don’t wish our enquiry to be handled by a telephone operator with no clue!

The best offshore bank will offer you an account manager or access to a human being on the end of a phone or an email and will also service your needs face to face should the need arise for you to make a personal visit to the bank.  In an effort to streamline and cut costs many banks are dispensing with the ability to provide the ‘personal touch’ but we all require a blend of the modern and old fashioned approach to customer care and a good offshore banking provider should recognise and honour this.

4) Pedigree and Stability

This is the fundamental point on which your decision should ultimately hinge - the offshore bank you choose has to have pedigree and stability, it has to have a good history, it needs to be well regulated, it has to have a stable parent company with solid and substantial reserves.  If you’re considering opening an account with a single branch offshore bank in Kazakhstan may I suggest you look a little more closely at the pedigree and stability of the bank for the sake of your financial assets?  If on the other hand you’re considering banking with HSBC International in Jersey then I guess the amount of due diligence you should undertake on this point is far less!

5) Account Options

Finally you obviously have a specific need for an offshore bank account whether that is a requirement for an offshore business account, an offshore personal account, a credit card or medium to long term investment product - you need to ensure that any offshore bank you consider can fulfil your requirements.  Once you have narrowed your selection of which offshore bank is the best offshore bank to just a few financial institutions you should ask about which products and accounts they have to fulfil your requirements.  You can then finalise your selection based on which bank offers you exactly what you require.