And yes, just like private banking, you'll get a personal banker guarding your account.

Any queries related to your account you can just ring up your personal banker.

The problem with AUD is that when anything goes wrong with the global economy, investors will all be dumping AUD and buy more USD.

I have done a simple comparison between a few banks myself.
I compared among public bank, cimb, uob, hong leong, and ocbc.

among all, hong leong seems to give the highest FCFD rates but UOB forex rates is the best in terms of them selling and buying.
however the difference between UOB and HL forex rate is just 0.3% different for both selling and buying.
From this, I think i will go for HL. But they need u to deposit at least RM8K

Not really. One of the best things of becoming a mass affluent customer of a bank is to get many bank fees waived.

There will always be this and that new investments from time to time and it is up to the individual whether or not he or she wants to invest in it. Some RM will not even call you because they know you are not interested in any investment products.

No minimum balance fee in our current account

free ATM card with unlimited withdrawal.

Standard Chartered Priority Banking VISA debit card even offers free unlimited cash withdrawals via any House ATM network.

Offshore banking services are provided free too without having to meet the minimum balance criteria just to name a few.

The main perks are to get some banks fees waived

no need to fill in your own forms

no need to take number etc.

By the way, i believe many businessmen have millions of Ringgit in local banks current accounts and the minimum balance fee still apply.

Still, it's something that their customers can take advantage of.

There will soon be more HSBC Amanah offsite ATM ...

Plenty ! Else why do you think many Malaysians have offshore bank accounts ?

You have not been into the branch in a very long time i suppose ? Maybank, CIMB Bank and RHB Bank practically force you to fill up the forms first before allowing you to take a number. Public Bank suggests you to fill in the forms first before taking a number but then it's just a suggestion and they are not enforcing it. AmBank on the other hand, no longer requires its customers to fill in any forms since last year.

Other forms that you may not have to fill in yourself are the loan application forms

credit card application forms

Not everyone relies on automated banking machines only. Many still actually go into the branch to do whatever they need to do.

If you transfer more than 10K then you must make declaration to BNM. I have made several declarations, so far no problems.

few mths back they set the rules at USD10k? anyone heard of this?

Not quite low. Very low.

http://www.bnm.gov.my/index.php?ch=12&pg=629#

If you look at the chart. The dip in Euro is even more pronounced.

Three years ago, GBP$1 was close to RM7.

http://www.bnm.gov.my/index.php?ch=12&pg=6...ype=Mid&unit=rm

How low can it go?

just called PBB again and now advised (by a different person) that upon maturity convert to MYR cash at prevalent forex rates. this is cool.

bloody hell!, thats why it level up so fast bcos of this.

You guys should go for dual currency investment. The interest rate is much higher than a conventional fixed deposit. I think it is a lot safer and fit your purpose of currency hedging besides earning a handsome return from interest.

DCI has pairing.

For eg. RM-AUD

DCI has 1 week 2 week or 1 month, tenure depended on banks offer or customer request as well. It will cease after the period.
Current spot rate of RM-AUD is 2.73.
your strike price could be 2.73 or 2.72 (spot - 100 pips), or 2.71 as well

For illustration
2.73 - 30%
2.72 - 20%
2.71 - 10%

Above is the offer of interest rate given with strike price based on 1 week tenure (can be 2 week or 1 month as well), but shorter duration, they give better rate.  Interest rate given is differ each day depended on the volatility of forex market, last week, when there is severe move in currency market, there is once DCI carried 70% as well.

Let say you decide to go in 2.73 - 30%
After 1 week, if the spot rate of RM-AUD is 2.74, then your RM won't be converted to AUD, but you will get 30% pa interest rate on your invested money.
If the spot rate is below the strike price of 2.73, your RM will be converted to AUD at 2.73, with together the 30% pa interest rate.

Based currency can be both way i.e. RM or AUD.
As if the money is converted to AUD, you could do the reverse aka base currency of AUD-RM DCI as well.

No way ! It is much much lower than that.

Interest rate for AUD and NZD is expected to rise further if economy does recover, so too long term commitment is not advisable. Just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Even we holding RM, we still have currency risk on RM, whereby RM can appreciate/depreciate against others major currency.

I have asked some friends (not really expert but just their opinion) compare between these both countries Australia and New Zealand they said NZ is a much more stable and peaceful country than Australia.

If i like NZ from this trip i might plan my migration there in the future.

Not necessarily so. In the case of the credit crunch in 2008/2009, key interest rates were reduced drastically across the globe mainly to spur spending.

Yes, australian banks will yield you one of the best returns globally, but it is also extremely volatile. hence, if the AUD depreciates to a level unacceptable to you, you can always opt to transfer the funds from your australian hsbc premier account to the malaysian equivalent at your discretion with no commission or fee.

but we are talking about 2.6 here (per USD) and not a drop of couple points.