Hello.

There are no custodian fees for HK stocks (except if you want to hold physicsl certificate deposit or if you have foreign HK depository receipts) and no dividend handling fees.

https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=14718

As for transferring to IB, you need to decide on fees and commissions, ease of usage of platform (IB is a bit dull and for more "serious" investors, others you can consider are like Moomoo, Tiger, uSMART, FSM, POEMS, etc.), customer service, platform stability/downtime, and the financial health of the broker itself, for the more astute investor.

Hope that helps.

IBKR does not charge for transfer-in positions. https://www.interactivebrokers.com.hk/en/index.php?f=48276

The transfer out charges comes from DBS Vickers. https://www.dbsvickers.com/vickers/pricing/hongkong.page

If your IB account is not based in SG (IBKR UK/US), possible transfer out charges will be 30 SGD per counter + "out-of-pocket expenses". You should contact DBS Vickers to clarify on the charges first. I am not sure if there are other charges like stamp duty on potential documents or GST from the SG government side.

There are no charges for corporate actions such as dividend reinvestment plans in HK.

Why didn't you consider S-REITs "to collect dividends"?

Uhmm is there any specific reason to use different brokers for different exchanges securities? Diversification? That's perfectly fine.

If you want USD REITs it's best you directly go for US REITs rather than trying to bet on the USD/HKD peg. Perhaps in the future, HKD will be peg to CNY/CNH we won't know.

For HK, the main REIT to buy will be Link REIT, but these few years the rent chargeable by Link for its "suburb" stores (retail properties) has risen almost to market rent, so there's little upside opportunity for Link, which is why you see them aggressively going overseas for M&A recently in search of growth. The yield looks nice however, 4-5%.  

Other REITs are smaller ones like Fortune, Champion or Chinese ones like YueXiu etc. In general, the investment environment here won't be the same as Singapore (it's not that retail-investor friendly like Singapore). And for REITs with HK properties, zero-covid policy and lack of Chinese immigrants coming means the rent is still subdued unlike SG.

So, that's something to take note.

If you mean transfer uninvested cash in HKD to IBKR, it's best to just use Wise multicurrency account to transfer directly. 

Otherwise if you mean transfer the stocks held at DBS Vickers SG, you either apply to transfer out the holdings from DBS Vickers (and initiate a transfer in application at IB's side) or you sell all the stocks from DBS Vickers account, transfer cash to IB via Wise and repurchase the shares via IB again. You can choose either method but there are trade-offs (transfer in/out in one go is easy but there are transfer out charges at DBS Vickers, buy/sell individually is cheaper but is tedious/cumbersome if you have many holdings at DBS Vickers in the first place.)

Oh I rarely encounter this situation. Usually peope transfer out securities, not cash.

Maybe you can contact DBS Vickers and see if there are any charges for transferring cash out in HKD. I am very sure if you have a DBS My Account, you can temporarily park your HKD cash there first, then transfer out to Wise (the limit is determined by the receiving account, HKD in this case: https://wise.com/help/articles/2932155/guid...-hkd-transfers) Then from Wise to IBKR in HKD.

But in any case, it would be risky since the transfer from Wise to IB is not via your own bank account. If you have a bank account in HK or a HKD bank account, would make life a lot easier.

If you don't have HKD bank account, it's best you ask to initiate a manual transfer between brokers but with some transfer out fees. That's the most straightforward way.

Just curious, how did you end up with HKD in DBS Vickers if you don't have HK or HKD bank accounts? You converted to HKD inside DBS Vickers?

If you got DBS SGD account and access to online banking, you can apply for DBS My account (yes the name is my account). It's a free multicurrency account that does not have monthly fall below fees.

It is the account that I am using currently and I am keeping SGD 0.10 inside. It can accept HKD. I use it to accept USD from my sreits.

After applying, link your debit card to it, close your SGD account. All can be done online. If you don't know how, chat with their robot.

Do let us know about the outcome. I am also interested in trying DBS HKD account to IBKR. That way I can close some of my HK bank accounts!

Close it cause my account us superior in every way unless your SGD account does not have fall below fees than you can keep it (unlikely).

When you want to transfer HKD, go to into IBKR and select deposit HKD. Very important. They will give you HK bank account address.
Login to DBS and use DBS remit. Make sure to select send HKD and received in HKD. Fill up the HK bank details into DBS as given by IBKR. Money should arrive same day provided you do transaction on office hour.

Do let us know about the outcome. I am also interested in trying DBS HKD account to IBKR. That way I can close some of my HK bank accounts!

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I have done it with USD. No issue. So I expect will be same for HKD.

Are my info and tutorials accurate or not?

Thanks for the confirmation. Very valuable information for me as I have both DBS Vickers and IBKR accounts.

Now you can appreciate the beauty of Lowyat Finance, Business and Investment House.

As for why I invest in S-REITs using IB but not DBS Vickers. The answer is fee.

IBKR cost around 2.5-2.7 SGD (min 2.5 SGD for fixed pricing, about 2.7 SGD for tiered pricing) for each purchase of about 400 SGD of S-REITs (e.g. 200 units of CICT at about 2 SGD per share). https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/prici...fic.php?re=apac

For DBS Vickers, whether or not you have CDP, the cash upfront charge for each purchase is 10 SGD minimum and that is for buy order/purchase only. You need to pay min. 25 SGD for sell orders. https://www.dbsvickers.com/vickers/pricing/singapore.page

Apart from fee, second reason is I don't need to switch between platforms as my Swiss, US and in the future, Europe and HK holdings will be via IB as well.

I (plan to) mainly use DBS Vickers + FSM SG for CDP purchase/sell but the fees are high, so I need to wait a bit longer when I have more money to buy big lots in one go, then I will use DBS Vickers for CDP purchase and FSM SG for selling my CDP holdings.

For now, DBS Vickers and FSM SG are my "emergency brokers". Just in case IB is in trouble and I see very deep discount in certain counters, or in case I need to transfer my holdings from IB to another broker for whatever reasons, these 2 SG brokers can function as "secondary broker".

The 2 SG brokers are also used to sell my CDP bond holdings in the secondary market, e.g. Astrea bonds or any other retail bonds I subscribe to in the future in case the companies are in trouble and I need to exit my stake quickly.

Can't speak about DBS Vickers as I haven't used their services yet. (I just linked my CDP account to it.)

IB's main problem is rights subscription as I am a Malaysian resident (no SG residency), so I don't get to subscribe to major S-REITs rights subscription. But there are exceptions, depending on the announcement or prospectus of the company, certain S-banks like OCBC allow Malaysians to subscribe to rights offerrings. That's how I ended up with 102 units of OCBC (2 units from rights subscription).

For FSM SG, Ramjade confirmed that they allow for rights susbcription for S-REITs, which I think is "illegal" since it's against the offering documents. But well, different brokers have different policies. So, it really depends. 

Since when I registered for DBS Vickers, I "self-declared" myself as an SG tax resident (they didn't check or asked for proofs...  ), I believe I have no issue with rights subscription using DBS Vickers, be it S-banks/stocks or S-REITs.

Custodian.

You need sg address for you to be able to participate in rights. Kinda of silly in this day and age.

Wow. Must celebrate. Now I got a kindred spirit to discuss SG CDP matters.    We are the privileged few to access SG government bonds on Lowyat!

As for your question,

1. Yes, SG stocks purchased via SG brokers like DBS Vickers and FSM SG held are held in CDP and the brokers (DBS Vickers, FSM SG) only handle the trading matters. Once the trade is cleared and settled, it's in CDP hands and the broker has nothing to do with your SG CDP stock/bond holdings.

2. For IBKR, all IB SG stocks are held under IBKR custodian, IB does not provide CDP account linkage if you have noticed. (Business reason: they want to lend your SG stocks to big insitutional short-sellers to earn loan interests them.)

We shall continue all CDP-related matters here: https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/3727515/+5200

I will give you updates on the upcoming T-bills, SGS bonds and SSB to purchase.

Better leave this thread for IBKR-related matters.
Not silly if you consider the different corporate laws and governance standards across different countries.

No party wants to go to court of another country if things go wrong with rights subscriptions/disputes arise etc.

wire

AFAIK... ach is for financial institutions inside usa

Just keep in ibkr. Now ibkr giving interest on USD. Why do you red to move your USD around?

I don't think DBS giving any interest. If you are DBS Treasures can waive. But need to call your RM.