What is the process of setting up a Singapore investment holding company? - YouTube

Hi everyone. My name is Mark. I am the  business website director at Healy Consultants  

in Singapore. I have with me on the video  today Grace Odhiambo. She is a senior client  

engagements manager based in our office in Johor  Bahru in Malaysia. Good afternoon Grace. Hi Mark,  

how are you? I am very good, thank you. How  about yourself? I am good as well. Good. Grace,  

we are sitting here today to talk about Singapore.  I think you recently completed a company set up  

for a client. Will you tell us a little bit about  it please? Yeah sure. So we engaged an Australian  

businessman and he has investments and assets  in Australia and he was looking for a stable  

jurisdiction where he could set up an investment  holding company. He had two options at the time.  

One was Malta and one was Singapore. So what we  did, he wanted to know the pros and cons for both  

jurisdictions. So what we did is he paid us a  retainer fee and we provided him a comprehensive  

comparison table so that he can look at all the  options and see where he can decide to set up his  

business. So then after a lot of deliberation  and discussions with our accounting agents  

in Australia, he went with Singapore. So then  we established an investment holding company  

in Singapore. Okay and I am assuming that  is a fairly straightforward process as with  

any Singapore incorporation, correct?  Correct. Okay very good. I believe that  

the client also requested us to open corporate  bank accounts for him. Will you just give us  

a very quick overview of what we did there? Yeah  sure. So our client also asked us to assist him to  

open two bank accounts and his main requirement  was eventually he would like to transfer fiat  

currency because his main business will be trading  in crypto and he would like to transfer fiat  

currency back to Australia ultimately. So he  wanted to know whether these banks will offer  

him both swift and SEPA facilities for him to  be able to transact and to send money back home  

and what would be the implications and all  those requirements. So I had to again draft  

another comparison, another two comparison tables  for him with different options, different banks.  

We contacted quite a number of banks and most  banks apparently do not offer swift transactions  

to crypto related entities. They consider this  too high risk. So eventually we managed to get  

him two bank accounts as he required. One was  in Europe, another one was in the Caribbean.  

Okay very good. Did the opening of  the bank accounts pose any particular  

logistical challenges Grace? In terms of was the  client required to travel or anything like that?  

No, for both banks, he was not required to travel.  They did require certified notarized company  

documents and due diligence documents and they  also requested extensive amount of information  

and documents from the client including his  current trading activity with all the exchanges  

that he is dealing with, so that they can get an  idea of what kind of trading he is doing. Yeah  

and they also wanted to know whether he has  clients or he is just doing trading for himself,  

and he was able to convince the banks because he  provided all the information that was requested.  

Okay very good, and what sort of timeline are we  talking about in terms of opening the accounts?  

The first bank account was quite fast.  I think within less than two months,  

we had already opened the first bank  account. The second one was a challenge.  

I think it took almost four or five months  to open the bank account, the second one.  

I see. Very good, Grace. Was there anything else  in the engagement that we should know about?  

Well, initially the client's request was to verify  about his taxes. He was very concerned about his  

taxes because as we know, Australia residents,  they do pay tax for all income whether it is  

received in Australia or worldwide income, so he  wanted to know the best way to manage his taxes,  

so that is why we had to set up a call initially  with our tax experts in Australia to give him  

more advice, and so we managed to alleviate any  of his concerns. Of course. So to speak, yeah.  

Okay Grace. Well we will leave it there. Thank you  so much for your time. It is interesting always to  

speak with you and hear about your engagement  so we will speak to you again very soon. Thank  

you for your time. Thank you, Mark. Thanks for  taking your time to talk to me. No problem, bye