Prepare For Default - Irish Style

Update: Open a Swedish Krona Bank Account in Sweden

I already looked into opening a Swedish Krona Bank last year with SEB, a private Swedish bank. At the time, the exchange rate was 1 euro=9.1 Krona. As I write, the exchange rate is 1 euro=8.61 Krona.

At the time of my enquiry I was very clear about why I wished to open an account (I said I was worried about exposure to the euro).

The response this time from SEB was again that there was no problem opening an account, and they sent me the forms and some information.

I noticed that many people coming to the site were interested in opening a Swedish bank account, so I’ve revisited this, and made similar enquiries recently to SEB, including questioning if there was internet banking in english.

This was the response.

“Thank you for your e-mail.

Unfortunately, we do not have the Internet Banking in English. We are currently working on it, but it is hard to say when we will have it available for clients. Furthermore, we have a minimum requirement for all of our clients which is that all clients must invest a minimum of SEK 100 000 (which approximately translates into EUR11500)”.

They also sent me application forms (in English) which you can find below.

Non Resident Pricelist 2012

Non Resident – Tax Residency

Non Resident – Requirements for Account Opening

Non Resident – Customer Information

Fees

There are quite a few fees mention on the non-resident pricelist, which I clarified with SEB.

For a basic SEK account the costs associated with the account are 950 SEK (about €110) to set up and maintain the account for the year.

The other rates are associated with foreign currency accounts held with the bank (in Euro, GB pounds, dollars etc), or accounts with advisory services (e.g. there is a 5000SEK charge if you have such an account, but this is generally for deposits larger than 1,000,000 SEK).

Application Requirements

You will need

A certificate of employment (a letter from you employer).
Photocopy of your passport verified by a notary
A letter of recommendation from your bank.
to visit the non-resident office in Stockholm in person.

Getting to Stockholm

Ryanair fly to Skavsta airport(about 100km south west of Stockholm) several times weekly.

Aer Lingus flies to Arlanda airport four times weekly, which is about 40km south of Stockholm. As a sample costing of the trip, I found the following pricing (as of Oct 29 2012).

Depart Dublin, Friday 02 Nov 2012 07.30, arr. Stockholm 11.05

Depart Stockholm Sunday 04 N0v 2012, 19:45, arr. Dublin 21.25

Total cost – €137.98

Summary

It is possible to open a swedish kroner account in Stockholm with SEB. Costs are a little over a hundred euro a year. You need to open an account with a minimum of about €11,500 euro.

Clarification of German Bank Deposit Guarantee

I wanted to clarify the situation regarding non-resident deposits in Germany, so I emailed the Bundesbank. See below the response. Protection is to €100,000 for both German Domestic and Non-resident accounts.

German Bank Deposit Scheme

Your enquiry of September 4^th, 2012

Dear Sir

Your enquiry to the Deutsche Bundesbank about the German Deposit Guarantee Scheme was passed on to us as the responsible division. First we would like to remark that the Deutsche Bundesbank itself is not involved in the functions and administration of deposit protection. Regarding deposit protection in Germany we would like to inform you that deposits with credit institutions are safeguarded by various deposit protection schemes, which exists side-by-side in both statutory and private-law form. Every compensation scheme provides for own compensation limits. For a general overview we reported in detail on the system of deposit protection in Germany in the July 2000 Monthly Report of the Deutsche Bundesbank. This article is available on the Bundesbank’s website here.

For your initial information we would like to make the following general remarks to explain some details of the German system of deposit protection: The legal basis for the statutory schemes and of its supervision is the Deposit Guarantee and Investor Compensation Act. The EC Directive on deposit guarantee schemes (EC/94/19) was implemented in Germany – together with the EC Directive on investor compensation (EC/97/9) – via the Deposit Guarantee and Investor Compensation Act (Einlagensicherungs- und Anlegerentschädigungsgesetz) of 16 July 1998, which entered into force on 1 August 1998. This Act implemented the minimum requirements of both Directives inGermany:

http://www.bafin.de/SharedDocs/Aufsichtsrecht/EN/Gesetz/eaeg_en_ba.html?nn=2821360.

Since the 1^stJanuary 2011 the limit for protection of deposits was raised to 100.000 € per depositor. In accordance with the Directives, certain types of deposits or claims and investors are excluded from protection. Protection is granted to domestic (residents) and foreign depositors (non-residents) alike. The Government has delegated the management of the statutory scheme for the private credit institutions and private building societies to the Entschädigungseinrichtung deutscher Banken (EdB).

In both the statutory and the supplementary private deposit protection system, protection is essentially given to account balances and/or deposits in the form of sight deposits, time deposits and savings deposits, as well as to claims arising from registered debt securities. Claims arising from bearer or order bonds are not covered by the deposit protection scheme. In the statutory compensation scheme, however, only deposits and assets which are denominated in the currency of a country in the European Economic Area or in euro are safeguarded. Furthermore, various groups of depositors, such as credit institutions, medium-sized and large incorporated enterprises, public bodies or insurance companies are excluded from statutory protection. By contrast, the private deposit protection scheme of German private banks is granted to deposits irrespective of the currency in which they are denominated and to all non-credit institutions (i.e. including business enterprises and public bodies) and thus – in the case of voluntary membership of private banks – supplements the level and scope of statutory protection. Nearly all private banks inGermanyare additionally member in the voluntary scheme. The private Deposit Protection Fund set up for the private commercial banks on a voluntary basis at the Association of German Banks safeguards in the event of insolvency non-securitised liabilities to non-bank creditors, for each creditor, up to the level of 30 % of the liable capital of the bank concerned (sum total of core capital and additional capital, of which the latter must not exceed 25 % of the core capital) at the time of the last published annual accounts.

In contrast to deposit protection provided by the private commercial banks, where the main concern is to protect depositors in the case of insolvency, the protection schemes of the savings bank and cooperative bank sectors are designed to prevent the institutions themselves from experiencing difficulties in making payments (so-called bank protection schemes). As a consequence of their involvement in institution protection schemes (equivalent systems within the meaning of the EU directive) the saving banks and cooperative banks are not additionally included in the statutory deposit guarantee scheme.

Concerning the German government guarantee we would like to refer you to the website of the German government: http://www.bundesregierung.de/Webs/Breg/EN/Homepage/_node.html.

We hope that you will find this information helpful.

Yours sincerely

DEUTSCHE BUNDESBANK

Buying Silver Coins in Zero VAT EU countries

The comparison table shows prices of Silver from various sources taken on 04 Sep 2012, mostly relating to purchasing silver coins.

I had been investigating going to Estonia or Norway to purchase silver to avail of the zero % VAT on legal tender (note that silver bullion still attracts VAT in Estonia), but the table below shows that for the Estonian and Norwegian prices I reviewed, their higher markup means it ends up the same price as other place. It seems more straightforward to

purchase silver through www.CelticGold.eu or similar
fly to Germany to pick up your silver and bring it back VAT free, or else organise yourself to get it couriered over (get the silver delivered to the courier company, and then arrange the transport yourself – this should also be VAT-exempt when it comes into Ireland).

I wasn’t able to find a Norwegian website in English where silver is sold, but the figures were clear enough that I didn’t need Norwegian so I’ve included them.

The ebay price has been added to show just how much over the spot people are asking for on ebay. The €46.97 is the price ex delivery after paying the 23% Irish tax on the purchase. All of the other prices assume you have a way of collecting the silver yourself and bringing it back into Ireland.

Detecting Fake Coins / Bars

If you do find yourself in Estonia or in Norway or anywhere else, the following link gives simple direction on detecting a fake coin or bar. The most obvious thing to do is to weigh the coin – a 1 ounce coin should weigh 31.1 grammes. However, you may not have a portable weighing scale, so be sure to bring along something that you know weighs something similar. E.g. a two euro coin should weigh 8.5g on the same scales, and bringing along four of them will give you a handy way to check the calibration of their weighing scales. Watch the scale increase in 8.5g steps all the way to 34g and you can feel alot more confident.

In Summary

The overseas zero % VAT rates in Estonia and Norway look attractive on paper, but you do not seem to get a better price over there (at least not from online vendors) than if you go through a local company. The local company might provide more piece of mind than going to a foreign country where you don’t speak the lingo and might be susceptible to problems.

Prepare For Default – Irish Style

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