To stay ahead of the game, Standard Chartered Malaysia continues to introduce new solutions through its banking app to provide clients with the utmost convenience.

The bank has launched SmartStocks, a new solution that allows investors to trade shares in seven countries and 12 markets with a brokerage fee of between 0% and 0.1%. The same rate applies to all stock markets, including Bursa Malaysia, the Singapore Exchange (SGX), Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Australian Securities Exchange and Tokyo Stock Exchange.

“Consistency is key, which means what we charge for trading shares on Bursa is the same for SGX, HKEX, NYSE and others. There is no difference in the rates,” says

Sammeer, the bank’s managing director and head of consumer, private and business banking.

Standard Chartered is currently running an offer up to Dec 31 this year for the bank’s Priority Private banking clients, where they enjoy a brokerage rate of 0% under SmartStocks, while its Priority banking clients are entitled to a 0.05% rate. Its premium banking clients pay slightly more at 0.08% and its personal banking clients are charged 0.1%.

“Even at 0.1%, it is one of the most competitive rates in the local market, especially when you take into account the number of countries, exchanges and stocks that SmartStocks allows clients to invest in,” says Sammeer.

SmartStocks also lets investors do their own investment research by tying up with Refinitiv, a global financial market data and infrastructure provider.

With just a few taps on the phone, investors can see the fundamentals and key financial ratios of each public-listed company, among others. Information that is unique to SmartStocks includes broker ratings and peer comparisons of companies in the same industry.

“We provide investors with the ability to do their own research. A lot of information is accessible to them to help them make better and informed decisions,” says Sammeer.

In creating a seamless experience, users can convert their ringgit into over 11

foreign currencies to trade shares in overseas markets when they use SmartStocks. No additional documents or information is required.

These foreign currencies are kept onshore in Standard Chartered bank accounts, so clients can avoid the extra cost and hassle of remitting money in and out of the countries for foreign brokers to execute their trades, says Sammeer.

A less-spoken-about advantage of keeping one’s foreign currencies onshore is its benefit for estate planning. Standard Chartered’s onshore foreign currency accounts and stock trading solution provide investors the convenience to consolidate their wealth to pass it on to their next of kin.

Standard Chartered has been investing in technology over the years to the benefit of its clients. Prior to launching SmartStocks, it introduced the capability to invest in hundreds of unit trust funds in eight currencies, on top of conducting their day-to-day banking activities.

A new capability called SC Remit has been added to the bank’s app this month. Clients can send money abroad with zero fees with just a few simple steps on the phone. Payees in the US, the UK, Singapore, Canada and Europe will now receive payments on either the same day or the next day.

“We just brought in a remittance solution with cutting edge technology. We have moved away from the way traditional banks transfer money and again, the new solution adds value to our clients by lowering their cost in using our services. Moving forward, more capabilities will be added to the bank’s app,” says Sammeer.

The core philosophy that underpins the bank’s various offerings is independent and unbiased financial advice. With technology, it wants to empower clients and help them grow their wealth.

Sammeer explains that this is why the bank adopts an open architecture model, which means providing clients with a variety of solutions from various partners without bias to best fulfil the clients’ needs and wants.

“Our main aim is to help our clients manage, preserve and grow their wealth. We want our advice to be holistic in terms of the depth and breadth of our solutions, unbiased towards any products to meet clients’ needs,” he says.

Besides in-house innovations, the bank is looking to establish more strategic partnerships with financial technology start-ups to offer solutions to a wider group of clients, says Sammeer. A recent example is its partnership with buy now, pay later firm Atome.

With all this, the bank wants to double its client base across the personal banking and affluent market in Malaysia over the next four to five years. “For that, we have to make sure that we are competitive in the market and add value to our clients,” he says.

Elevate your trading experience now with Standard Chartered SmartStocks. To find out more, visit: www.sc.com/my/investments/smartstocks/