A New Banking Solution for Seafarers August 9th, 2019

 

A New Banking Solution for Seafarers

Moving to a new country and starting a new job can be one of the most nerve-racking times in your life. Between finding accommodation, getting familiar with your surroundings and the culture, dealing with potential language barriers, and settling into your new job, you must ensure continuous and reliable access to your money.

Or, what if you are working on a superyacht, sailing the seven seas for months or even year at a time without a fixed address? You will have to consider all the different continents you will be visiting and the different currencies you will need to use.

And the last thing you want to worry about is opening a bank account, which is never easy for someone outside their own country.

Why is it so difficult to open a bank account as a seafarer?

• Sure, your employer or management company may set you up with the bank they do business with, but, that bank might not have everything you want and expect from a bank.
• You may only be able to open an account in the local currency, which may be different than the currency that you need.
• How are you going to send money back home without paying ridiculous fees and getting the bad end of the exchange rate? No worries, you can make up for those losses by investing in the market! Right? Maybe not.

• You may discover that the bank doesn’t offer a brokerage account. Or, the brokerage account they do offer may not have all the instruments and markets you were looking for, limiting your strategy and gains.

So, what can you do? Use your existing, domestic bank?

Possibly, but the odds are that most banks at home aren’t designed for depositors who have a ‘borderless’ lifestyle, especially when it comes to transferring and withdrawing funds around the world.

Luckily, there is another option—one that many expats are now taking advantage of.

You can open an International Bank Account.

Okay, I know what you are thinking. Aren’t those accounts only for the super-wealthy, requiring large deposits and minimum balances upwards of hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars? And, aren’t the maintenance fees astronomical?

Yes, it’s true that many ‘offshore banks’, as they are commonly referred to, are designed for the super wealthy and elite, not the average expat or small business owner.

But that’s not the type of bank we are talking about here. There is a new type of bank that is disrupting the traditional banking industry and its gatekeepers.

We call them “International Banks”. Why are they becoming more popular?

• Today, we see some serious lag in the traditional banking system—outdated infrastructure, legacy management, and narrow product offerings.
• The rise of the internet and smart devices has offered consumers and businesses an alternative to ‘traditional’ banking solutions.
• More and more banking transactions are being completed electronically on smartphones or computers, not in-branch.
• This has raised some questions about the relevance of traditional, ‘brick and mortar’ institutions like domestic banks, whose technical, regulatory, and customer service limitations have become the norm.

Pair these changes with globalization and the fact that many of us are doing business more internationally than ever, whether working abroad or running our own businesses, transferring funds to/from clients and vendors all over the world.

Now, these new International Banks have the same functions—often more—than your domestic bank. International Banks offer low fees, low minimum balance requirements, multiple currency accounts, and competitive conversion rates.

So, what exactly is an International Bank?

A bank in the country that you live and work, is known as a Domestic Bank. In contrast, when your bank is in a country outside the country you live and work, that’s an International Bank.

• Unlike Domestic Banks, International Banks are not mandated by their regulators to invest and lend depositors' funds into the local economy that they are regulated in.
• Most importantly, International Banks are not mandated to service the local market and are therefore free to accept clients from most countries in the world.
• This allows you, the depositor, to go where you’re treated best.

Now, you may be thinking, “International Banks do not have deposit insurance. Does that make them risky?” Counter-intuitively, banks that have deposit insurance are more likely to take risks with depositor funds due to the ‘moral hazard’.

Therefore, if you can find an International Bank that does not lend, then the need for insurance is mostly mitigated.

Enter Euro Pacific Bank, an International Bank licensed in Puerto Rico.

Euro Pacific Bank (EPB) is a fully digital bank that operates on a ‘full-reserve’ policy, meaning they do not issue loans or engage in proprietary trading of bank capital. Instead, EPB derives 100% of its margins from fees and commissions.

They are banking on:

• 100% liquidity
• 100% capitalization
• zero loans

And lucky for you, they specialize in seafarers, expats, and other types of "borderless" banking clients.

Is it difficult to open an international bank account at Euro Pacific Bank?

Not at all.

• You can open your account online, never need to step foot in the bank, or even leave the comfort of your home.
• And with dedicated customer support, you can easily reach us by phone or secure message, with service in several different languages.
• Open an account with several different currencies and a bank card, which allows you to access your funds all over the world.
• Send funds back home and to family, as well as pay bills, fees, and memberships, all from one account.
• In addition, you can even buy and store precious metals, trade on an international brokerage platform, and invest into unique managed investment portfolios.

 

Your life doesn’t have borders. Why should your bank? Seek a sound banking solution that travels with you.

https://europacbank.com/expats