Who knows WSBC Bank from Cook Islands?

cameleonguru

Hello everybody,

I am new in this Forum and I am wondering if some of you know WSBC Bank (https://www.wsbcbank.com) from Cook Islands. It seems that this is a small bank exempted from the financial crises and they propose very attractive financial products to their customers. They have investment plans with guaranteed 7% annual return but higher returns are possible (but these are not guaranteed). I think in uncertain times like these, this is a very interesting investment.

But before I invest I would like to learn more about them.

Who knows this bank?
How safe are they?
What do you know about it?

To learn more about this bank I would really appreciate comments from members of this forum who knows this bank, because I really consider to invest in their products.

Thank you in advance to all of you for your assistance and guidance

LucyTheDwarf

Welcome to the forums

Have *you* heard of this bank before today? And, would you trust a bank that is based entirely outside of the UK, that has nothing about the safety of your money on it's website (certainly doesn't say it's covered by FSCS! Do you know that if the worst happened your money would be safe)? I don't think I would!!!

You can still get fixed rate savings accounts in the 6% range, from more well known names than this! ICICI has 6.6% fixed for 12 months - I'm assuming you wouldn't be averse to saving in a non European bank if you're looking at investment plans based on the cook islands! Bear in mind there are questions over ICICI's future though... First 50k covered though, and judging by the Icesave fiasco, if the worse happened you'd get your money in 6 weeks or so!

[Deleted User]

I think that any "bank" using Moby's 'In This World', (more than likely illegally), is a right load of you know what! Spam dare I say it...

Reported anyway

LucyTheDwarf

Heh, I thought that was a nice touch - ugh, can you imagine if your bank did play music at you... I'd never be able to log on, it'd do my head in.

[Deleted User]

LucyTheDwarf wrote: »

Heh, I thought that was a nice touch - ugh, can you imagine if your bank did play music at you... I'd never be able to log on, it'd do my head in.

Depends on the music Lucy

Thought I recognised the tune, 5 minutes later of cycling through my iTunes then bingo! On the plus side I'm now listening to an absolute classic album!

cameleonguru

Thank you LucyTheDwarf for your welcome message.

Do you guys really think that "music" is the issue here?

During this financial crises we saw big banks collapses in US - UK - and in other countries due to their interconnection and high risk investments and a lot of people lost a lot of money due to this situation.

That's why I think maybe it is better to keep my money in smaller structures, which are not that exposed and involved in high risk investments. Even if they play music on their website.

What do you think guys?

"Small is beautyfull"

ManAtHome

UK banks have a deposit protection scheme - is there anything similar in the Cook Islands..?

eeja

cameleonguru wrote: »

Hello everybody,

I am new in this Forum and I am wondering if some of you know WSBC Bank (www.wsbcbank.com) from Cook Islands. It seems that this is a small bank exempted from the financial crises and they propose very attractive financial products to their customers. They have investment plans with guaranteed 7% annual return but higher returns are possible (but these are not guaranteed). I think in uncertain times like these, this is a very interesting investment.

But before I invest I would like to learn more about them.

Who knows this bank?
How safe are they?
What do you know about it?

To learn more about this bank I would really appreciate comments from members of this forum who knows this bank, because I really consider to invest in their products.

Thank you in advance to all of you for your assistance and guidance

The Cook Islands are a string of Islands in the beautiful Polynesian archipelago. Saw a documentary on the islands. Each year they hold a Miss Cook Islands Beauty contest and the girls are delectable.
Financial security ? Now thats easy to answer ! Contact the New Zealand High Commission in London and inquire as to whether their banks are covered by the current NZ savers guarantee scheme. If the scheme covers the Cook islands feel free to place your money there. If the scheme does not apply then you are taking a hell of a gamble investing there. Why you may ask is New Zealand relevant ? Because these islands belong to NZ and the currency used is the Kiwi dollar.

noh

The Cook Islands are a string of Islands in the beautiful Polynesian archipelago. Saw a documentary on the islands. Each year they hold a Miss Cook Islands Beauty contest and the girls are delectable.
Financial security ? Now thats easy to answer ! Contact the New Zealand High Commission in London and inquire as to whether their banks are covered by the current NZ savers guarantee scheme. If the scheme covers the Cook islands feel free to place your money there. If the scheme does not apply then you are taking a hell of a gamble investing there. Why you may ask is New Zealand relevant ? Because these islands belong to NZ and the currency used is the Kiwi dollar.

The Cook Islands don't belong to New Zealand they are a self-governing parliamentary democracy in free association with New Zealand.
http://www.ck/govt.htm

Nigel

eeja

noh wrote: »

The Cook Islands don't belong to New Zealand they are a self-governing parliamentary democracy in free association with New Zealand.
http://www.ck/govt.htm

Nigel

The above website is from their local gov ! In practice they are totally under and dependant on NZ
Are they a member of the UN and have a seat there ? and do they have a foreign policy and army ? Do they have their own currency ? Or is it NZ that takes care of these 'minor' matters for them.
If you had seen the documentary you would have realised that they are a in reality a self governing colony of NZ in all but name ...all their higher education is at NZ universities.
You must distinguish what is apparent and face saving from what is true. They could never survive without assistance from NZ.
An analogy I suppose is the relationship between IOM and the UK .
So the question remains...are the savings at their banks covered by the NZ guarantee ?

noh

eeja wrote: »

The above website is from their local gov ! In practice they are totally under and dependant on NZ
Are they a member of the UN and have a seat there ? and do they have a foreign policy and army ? Do they have their own currency ? Or is it NZ that takes care of these 'minor' matters for them.
If you had seen the documentary you would have realised that they are a in reality a self governing colony of NZ in all but name ...all their higher education is at NZ universities.
You must distinguish what is apparent and face saving from what is true. They could never survive without assistance from NZ.
An analogy I suppose is the relationship between IOM and the UK .
So the question remains...are the savings at their banks covered by the NZ guarantee ?

The fact remains they do not belong to New Zealand.
They are not subject to NZ laws unless they choose to adopt them.
Here is a link to a NZ government website. Read the part entitled "Bilateral Relations" near the bottom

So the question remains...are the savings at their banks covered by the NZ guarantee ?

And the answer is no.

Here is a link to info on the recently introduced NZ retail deposit scheme
http://www.treasury.govt.nz/economy/guarantee/retail/qanda
and another to institutions covered under that scheme.
http://www.treasury.govt.nz/economy/guarantee/retail/approved

Nigel