The best Singapore international stock brokers

After some consolidation among brokerages in recent years, most of the biggest stock brokers in Singapore are the bank-owned ones. OCBC Securities has pushed most heavily into international dealing lately, with its iOCBC platform offering a wide range of regional markets online. DBS Vickers and UOB Kay Hian seem to be lagging behind a little, but offer a few markets online and several more through broker-assisted trades.

Among the remaining independents, Phillip Securities Singapore has built a strong range of markets that rivals OCBC. Its online platform is a little less comprehensive, but broker-assisted markets include Sri Lanka, making it the first Singapore firm to promote this to retail investors. (If comparing brokers internationally, be aware that Phillip Singapore and Phillip Hong Kong seem to be run separately and offer a few differences in markets and fees.)

Kim Eng offers a mix of online and broker-assisted markets; it’s well-regarded, but is perhaps not looking as competitive as it did in the past. Hopefully, the recent investment from Malaysia’s Maybank will help it to expand.

Lim & Tan used to offer solely the Malaysian and US markets, but now provides an extensive range of international markets online using a platform from a third-party foreign broker. The identity of this firm isn’t disclosed, but seems likely to be Hong Kong-based Boom – which suggests that investors should skip the middle man and deal direct with Boom.

There are plenty of other brokerages – AmFraser, CIMB iTrade, Citibank Brokerage, DMG & Partners – but few are notable for foreign dealing. An exception is the Singapore office of Denmark’s Saxo Bank, which has a limited regional offering but is one of the cheapest way to invest in European markets through a Singapore-registered firm. Standard Chartered Bank also offers low commissions for many major global markets, but beware high FX conversion costs.

The traditional core is Hong Kong, Malaysia and the US. Other Southeast Asian markets and Japan are common and other regional markets are available from some firms. Australia and Canada have become common in recent years, but can be expensive. European coverage is very sketchy and extremely expensive, with the exception of Saxo Bank and to some extent Standard Chartered.

Company	Markets available
AmFraser Securities	Online: Malaysia, Singapore, USA Broker-assisted: Indonesia
CIMB Securities iTrade	Online: Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, USA
Citibank Brokerage	Online: Hong Kong, Singapore, USA
DBS Vickers	Online: Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, USA Broker-assisted: Australia, China B, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, UK
DMG & Partners	Online: Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, USA
Kim Eng	Online: Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, USA Broker-assisted: Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand
Lim & Tan	Online: Australia, China B, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, USA Most foreign markets traded through unspecified intermediary (possibly Boom Securities in Hong Kong)
OCBC Securities	Online: Australia, China B, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, UK, USA Broker-assisted: Canada, Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan
Phillip Securities Singapore	Online: Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, UK, USA Broker-assisted: Australia, Canada, China B, France, Germany, Korea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan
Saxo Bank	Online: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA Greece available as CFDs
Standard Chartered Bank Securities Trading	Online: Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland, UK, USA
UOB Kay Hian	Online: Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, USA Broker-assisted: Australia, Canada, China B, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, UK

For full details of fees and other services, click to see the detailed Singapore international online stock broker comparison chart.

Very hard to summarise owing to tiered commissions and very different fees across international markets. Expect to pay something around 0.2%-0.5% with a minimum of S$20-40 for the most common markets and up to 1% with a minimum of S$100 for the more difficult ones.

Custody charges of S$2 per share per month are common, but will usually be waived for a moderate level of activity (around six trades per quarter). Dividend handling charges and corporate action fees are also fairly common and S$10 per event is a reasonable assumption.

FX charges are typically incorporated in a quoted exchange rate rather than broken out. Bid-offer spreads reportedly seem to vary from near-nil to about 1.5% depending on the currency pair.

If your sole priority is accessing a wide range of regional markets at a reasonable cost and maximum simplicity, OCBC and Phillip are so far ahead of their peers that it isn’t worth considering any other firms.

OCBC has the simpler fee structure and can be integrated with an OCBC bank account, but Phillip is cheaper for some markets and offers exchanges that OCBC doesn’t yet include. Both are worth investigating before you make up your mind.

Saxo Bank is an excellent choice for investing in European shares, while Standard Chartered is useful for some markets. Commissions elsewhere for the UK and mainland Europe remain far above domestic rates in those markets and too high to be viable, even through OCBC or Phillip.

As an alternative, Interactive Brokers does not currently have a Singapore arm but Singapore residents could go through one of its international offices – as could residents of most other countries.

Most Singapore stock brokers accept non-resident retail clients – known exceptions are Citibank and possibly Standard Chartered. Some are likely to accept US residents, who are rejected by many international firms for reasons explained in this article.