I prefer opening a trading account and bank account in Singapore.   Long run, it should be a lot cheaper.

I use  UOB Kay Hian and DBS.    I made a trip to Singapore and sort out both accounts in 1 morning...

After that, did everything else online..   Never have to make another trip there so far..

For DBS, I open a DBS Saving Plus account.  I just brought my passport, IC and SGD.    At that time, it was ok as the ac min balance was SGD500 and if below, there is a fee of SGD2 per month but now, looks like they have revised the min deposit to SGD5000 :
  http://www.dbs.com.sg/personal/deposit/sav...gners/fees.page?
I also looked at Standard Chartered Bank and their Esaver account is pretty good.    No min deposit/balance, no monthly fees.
In addition, I have heard that if one TT from their Malaysia Standard Chartered Bank account to their Sing Standard Chartered Bank account, there are no charges.  I have not tried this myself.

http://www.standardchartered.com.sg/person...ver-account/en/

From their website:
  High Interest Rates
  No lock-in period
  No monthly fees
  No minimum deposit
  No minimum balance
  No fixed term
  No hardcopy statements to file
  No ATM cards, passbooks or cheque books to lose
I think when you choose a bank,  other than considering the bank fees/min balance, it is important that they are one of the below banks (maybe these are all the banks in Sing?   I have no idea):
For Uob Kay Hian, to open an account, you need your IC & Income statements:
  http://www.uobkayhian.com.sg/page/site/pub...copenSGXfr.html

If you don't have a CDP account, they will do it for you too.    In Singapore, only 1 CDS account...  not like in Malaysia.  1 CDS account for each broker..  pensang. 

Anyway, found this useful thread:
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/stocks-s...-a-3628498.html

Hope this help.

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Added on September 30, 2012, 9:03 am
Thanks for the alert... 

I like to check out comparison table in this blog  http://mystocksinvesting.com/:
http://mystocksinvesting.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Singapore-undervalued-REIT-stock-comparison-5-Sep-2012.png

What about interest rate risk? in the end you will be spending RM not SGD.

LOL whatever you call it.. it's the same thing

ok so correct me if im wrong pls, very new in this... as a malaysian i will then need to open a scb trading account and a savings account with them and that should do it so I can start trading?

You don't to open CDS account for Standard Chartered Bank Trading Platform as your shares will be deposit into a nominee account.

For IPO you need to use other broker. SCB only use nominee account.

For one, nominee means the stocks are under the banks name, you cannot vote at Agms.
If banks goes under, you may lose yer stocks. You stocks maybe used for shorting.