The Advantages of Opening a Multi-Currency Account at Loyal Bank

The multicurrency account was not deliberately designed to be a sophisticated financial instrument. It developed accidentally in smaller European countries like Switzerland, Luxembourg and Andorra where individuals commonly needed bank checking accounts in various currencies. This had been especially true before the euro was introduced when Europeans did business in many different national currencies.

Anyone interested in currency diversification should consider opening a multicurrency bank account, which is one of the most simple and convenient solutions for diversifying out of the dollar or euro.

A multi-currency account is a simple a bank account, with a single account number, in which you can hold balances in various different currencies. Loyal Bank offers you multicurrency accounts in a wide range of currencies: GBP, CHF, JPY, CNY, CZK, CAD and AUD are available to your EUR or USD main account.  When you log in to your NetBank, you see a summary screen showing your balances in all currencies.  

Advantages to this are numerous:

First of all, it is clearly a very convenient tool for anyone who is serious about diversifying currency risk. Instead of having lots of different account numbers and logins probably at different banks, you keep everything on one convenient screen. At any time you can easily exchange your balance in one currency for another currency.

You can transfer money in different currencies without the need for currency conversions.  This type of account is therefore ideal if you often send and receive money internationally in the form of dividend payments, commissions or transfers related to an overseas property.

You can have Cirrus/ Maestro, MasterCard and Platinum Card bankcards linked to your main multi-currency account that can be denominated either in EUR or USD.

Multicurrency accounts are a safe way to hedge against currency risks or make profits with fluctuations as you cannot count on so much potential profit but there is also less potential for loss. This is an easy version of forex trading for people who don’t want check currency rates frequently.

One of the greatest advantages of having a Loyal Bank multicurrency account, besides the currency diversification, is privacy. Privacy is a basic human right, which is unfortunately disappearing fast when it comes to financial services. Loyal Bank, incorporated in St Vincent and the Grenadines, ensures that the up-to-date laws of SVG guarantee proper preservation of confidential relationships in financial services.  

Opening a multicurrency bank account at Loyal Bank enables you to take advantages of our various financial services like the Corporate Payment System, investment trading, precious metal purchase, investment funds too.

To get to know more about our multicurrency accounts, please visit our website at www.loyalbank.com!

New Loyal Agency and Trust Corp. Website Launched

Launching our new Loyal Group website was only the first step in modernising and unifying all sites related to our Group.  Now we are proud to announce the release of the brand new site of Loyal Agency and Trust Corp. www.latc-svg.com!

Loyal Agency and Trust Corp. is a company operating in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, West Indies, exclusively dedicated to serving the needs of offshore non-residents who require wealth security, asset confidentiality and tax efficiency using legitimate offshore structures. Why would you choose St. Vincent? Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is an independent nation. It is a full member of the British Commonwealth, the United Nations, the Organisation of American States, the International Labour Organisation, Caricom, and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States. In 1996, the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines created a new International Financial Services Authority and enacted a set of laws that not only reflect the best elements of modern offshore legislation, but also accept the reality of today's information technology. There are up-to-date laws governing International Business Companies, International Banks and International Trusts, as well as a law ensuring proper preservation of confidential relationships in financial services. For the international client, whether corporate or private, St. Vincent offers a secure and modern environment in which to do business.

On the new website we restructured the information to be more coherent and therefore now it is easier to find what you’re looking for. The site is available in four languages (English, Spanish, Russian and Chinese) and the already existing content of the old site is amended with some new features too: you can easily subscribe to our newsletter, leave a testimonial or download all documents in a package, while the ‘hot news’ section always keeps you updated.  

Besides our well-known products like IBC and LLC registration and the Global Business Package that combines an IBC registered in St. Vincent with a Loyal Bank Corporate Bank account with Digipass, some information on newer products like Hybrid Companies and Segregated Cell Companies are now also available. You can find a useful offshore terminology and the ‘Benefits’ menu helps you to decide which structure would fit your needs the most.

Visit www.latc-svg.com today and do not forget to tell us your opinion either here as a comment or on the website itself. Your feedback is always much appreciated!

Cyprus: What It Costs to Avoid Bankruptcy

Cyprus has been struggling for over a year to finance its banking sector from the exposure to the Greek debt and the crisis has finally escalated this March. Our summary gives you a short overview of the situation.

Last November representatives of the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Central Bank (the Troika) investigated the country's financial problems and agreed on the bailout terms with the Cypriot Government with only the amount of money required for the bailout remaining to be agreed upon. The austerity measures included cuts in civil service salaries, social benefits, allowances and pensions and increases in VAT, tobacco, alcohol and fuel taxes, taxes on lottery winnings, property, and higher public health care charges.

On 16 March 2013, the Troika agreed a €10 billion deal with Cyprus. Weeks of never-ending negotiations, protests and different ideas followed: the initial plan was about a one-off bank deposit levy of 6.7% for deposits up to €100,000 and 9.9% for higher deposits on all domestic bank accounts, however this was rejected by the Cypriot Parliament. A new plan to restructure the Cyprus Popular Bank, the second largest bank also known as Laiki Bank was followed by the idea of preserving all insured deposits of 100,000 Euros or less without a levy, but shutting down Laiki Bank, levying all uninsured deposits there, and levying 40% of uninsured deposits in Bank of Cyprus. This uncertainty caused that banks in Cyprus were closed for approximately 2 weeks. This controversial measure was needed to prevent withdrawal or transfer of moneys representing the prescribed levy thus to maintain the vulnerable financial system. 

When the final agreement was settled on 25 March, the idea of imposing any sort of deposit levy was dropped, as it was instead now possible to reach a mutual agreement with the Cypriot authorities accepting a closure for Laiki Bank. The targeted closure of Laiki and the recapitalisation plan for Bank of Cyprus helped significantly to reduce the needed loan amount for the overall bailout package. Negotiations on a €10 billion bailout were finally completed on 2 April, but the Cypriot finance minister resigned hours after that.

The bailout keeps Cyprus in the euro-zone, but the country will be pushed into a harsh recession and it will take time to rebuild trust in the financial sector.

Happy Chinese New Year from Loyal Group

Loyal Group – setting off on a long journey

Building a company brand is a very complex and demanding task.  Integrating the branding strategy of sub-brands that used to live their own lives more or less independently of each other is even greater. But as Claude M. Bristol put it: You have to think big to be big. Keeping this in mind we decided to take up the challenge and develop a unified company image and e-marketing strategy to boost online presence, get closer to our clients and offer them a completely new experience.

First we dealt with our logos as they symbolise our company and sub-brands. We used to have five logos of five different styles not really implying a strong corporate image. One of our main tasks at the beginning was to create our Group logo and recreate the other sub-brand logos by following the same template to produce unified, yet distinguishable ones clearly indicating that the brands behind them make up a single group. After long, thoughtful internal consideration and never-ending votes on the colours, finally all logos were approved and now they are used on all related websites. 

  Old logos - different styles, different looks   

New logos - harmonized looks, easy recognition

 







 


Another great improvement on the way of reaching our final goal is the creation of Loyal Group’s website, www.loyalgroup.org. All sub-brands can be easily found on this page that also provides brand-new means of contacting our customer service online: Besides the well-known e-mail and phone options, now you can reach us on Skype and Google Talk, or you can leave us a “call me back” message too.

And if it is not enough we still have more to tell you! No-one can afford missing out on the social media frenzy, so we are now present on platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn to keep you informed about our latest news, updates, products and services, so do not forget to follow us!

But we do not stop here: soon our Facebook and Google+ pages will be released and we devote 2013 to launch a series of freshly designed sub-brand websites that reflect corporate unity and present more coherent and organised content.

Have anything to say about our new look? Or just want to share your experience in branding? We would love to hear your opinion: post a comment or email us!

Welcome to the official blog of Loyal Group!

The end of 2012 marks an important milestone in the history of Loyal Bank Limited: Loyal Group came to existence with the aim to integrate the products and services the Bank has been offering its clients for 15 years. With unified corporate identity, simplified customer service experience and easily accessible sub-brands Loyal Group provides an efficient way of getting to know and applying for our financial solutions.

Loyal Bank Limited was incorporated in St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 1997. It is one of the biggest and longest established banks of the country and growth continues at a fast pace. Besides the head office in St. Vincent, a European Representative Office in Budapest is now also open. The Bank not only offers core banking services like private and corporate bank accounts with Cirrus/ Maestro, MasterCard and Platinum Card bankcards, but a full array of value added services as well. Currently four sub-brands provide special services for our Clients.

To enhance customer care we at Loyal Group intend to develop direct and easy ways of communicating with our Clients and informing them about the latest news and updates regarding the Bank. As an important step in the process this blog is launched to be the primary source of information we provide you and feedback you provide us. This blog gives you in-depth coverage of our products and services, news, promotions as well as the most important topics relating to banking and finance. Views and opinions can be easily shared and discussed in comments and your feedback is much appreciated as it has always been.