Author : Ramapati SinghaniaSeychelles offshore banking is best explained by the seeing the list of information that is required by a Seychelles bank to open an account for your offshore company

A Typical Bank Account Application Form Will Require The Following Details:

01 Type of Account: Corporate / Personal

02 Type of Business: Limited Companies, Companies, Clubs, Associations and Societies

03 Name of Business

04 Country of Incorporation / Registration

05 Name of Signatories and authority given to them

a to sign this Agreement

b to enter into any other agreement with the bank for banking products or services with they consider to be in the interests of the Business from time-to-time; and

c To give instructions to the bank and set up security procedures for giving instructions by telephone
Including the account type

06 To agree and accept on behalf of the business:

a Accept the banks terms and conditions

b that requests for new accounts shall be in accordance with the mandate held with the bank

c Bank standard terms and conditions

d Authority for transfer instructions

e Various indemnity covering transfer instructions, checks payable abroad

f To allow the bank to get credit reference about the person opening the account

07 The combination of individual / s authorized to give instruction to Bank are:

a Account operating signatures: Singly, jointly, with limits

08 Information Memorandum

a Business Name:

b Registered Office Address:

c Contact Details: the account holder’s or any others: Phone, fax, email,

d Correspondence Address/Statement Address

e Share Capital

09 Banking requirements

a Currency Required

b Frequency of Statements

10 Business details

a Full description of main activities/trade of the company [Specific]

b Description of the operation of the business

c How and where the income to this account will be derived

d Any additional useful information:

i Website Address

ii Brochures

iii Publicity Material

iv Business Plan

11 Source of Funds

a Please specify where funds to this new account will come from

b Specific company names/ individuals if known

12 Specify the countries of operation

13 Expected annual turnover

14 Frequency and size of annual payments into the account

15 Beneficial Owners

16 Declaration regarding Money Laundering:

a We hereby confirm that to the best of our knowledge the company is not and will not be involved in

i Money Laundering,

ii Drug Trafficking or

iii Terrorist Activities

There are a few other issues related to Seychelles offshore banking that every one wants answers to and I am mentioning them below:

1 Due Diligence

To open a corporate account for an offshore company, all reputable banks including those providing Seychelles offshore banking, will require detailed personal and business information from the owners and controllers of the offshore account

* Identify the actual beneficial owner of the offshore company All owners and controllers of the IBC, as well as everyone who will be granted account signatory rights, need to be properly identified and have to provide a number of documents, such as

- a certified passport copy,

- a bankers and/or professional reference,

- a detailed business description and

- a cash flow forecast

These requirements may vary in details, but their general scope remains fairly similar to most offshore banks, not just in Seychelles offshore banking Utilizing appointed directors and nominee shareholders is certainly helpful in respect of avoiding unnecessary public scrutiny, however these confidentiality functions are fairly irrelevant in Seychelles offshore banking account openings

Any bank will primarily be interested to establish the actual, real owners of the company, and will not be satisfied by merely getting the data on appointed managers or representatives

2 Anonymous accounts at Seychelles offshore banking?

There is no such thing as ‘anonymous accounts’! All banks are required by law to know their clients in very comprehensive detail While account introduction through an approved intermediary (like us) is still possible without the personal appearance of the owner of the company, banks still want to know their clients and their business dealings in great detail This is simply required by the laws, that have become stricter after 9/11, that regulate banking industry and there are no exceptions

3 Seychelles offshore banking secrecy:

While the banks are required to know their clients in detail, banking secrecy remains a fundamental cornerstone in all offshore financial centers, and certainly in Seychelles! The banking secrecy regulations stipulate that all information relating to the client must remain strictly confidential

Any confidential banking and personal information may only be divulged if demanded so by a Seychelles court ruling Such ruling, naturally, would have to be based on extremely serious circumstances under the applicable criminal laws in Seychelles, and following a proper criminal investigation, carried out domestically in Seychelles

Information sharing, reporting or any kind of release of confidential banking information to any foreign party or foreign government is strictly prohibited Severe financial and criminal penalties await anyone who divulges client information, and is applicable to both the bankers and the registered agents Ramapati Singhania specializes in creating and managing web businesses. His latest website http://www.incorporation-offshore-saves-wealth.com focuses on helping you to incorporate offshore companies in Seychelles, Mauritius and BVI. You can also visit his blog, http://www.ramapatisinghania.com

Read full story

Author : Ramapati SinghaniaSeychelles Banking: One of The Best In The World To Transact With

The Republic of Seychelles comprises of 155 islands spread randomly in the lap of the calm Indian Ocean Seychelles have population of about 81,000 English, French and Seychellois Creole are the three official languages of the country

The capital of Seychelles is Victoria Seychelles gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1976 The people of Seychelles are hardworking and trustworthy That is why Seychelles has continued its development even after it decided to cast the British crown aside The economy of Seychelles has developed greatly after its independence

This growth has been caused by the practical steps being taken by the government of Seychelles to ensure the economy’s growth and to exploit its dependence on the flourishing tourism sector

In the past few years Seychelles has recognized the importance of the finance and financial services sectors, and that of offshore companies with the introduction of the zero Seychelles tax company as well The government of Seychelles has focused on the development of these offerings by taking several legislative steps

The Seychelles Monetary Authority was established in 1978 as the bank of issue It later became the Central Bank of Seychelles in 1983 Other government banks operating in Seychelles are the Seychelles Savings Bank and the Development Bank of Seychelles

Five major commercial banks operate in the Seychelles, namely Barclays, Nouvobanq, Banque Francaise Commerciale Ocean Indien, Bank of Baroda, and Habib Bank Development of an offshore banking center was announced in 1999

Seychelles banking is governed by the Financial Institutions Act 1984 as amended in 1995 The licenses to banking companies are only issued to those banks which have been incorporated under the Companies Act 1972 or foreign companies which have been registered under the same act

The banking license issuing authority in Seychelles is the offshore Banking Department of the Central Bank Licenses are usually issued separately for domestic and offshore banking But in some cases licenses are issued for both at the same time When licenses are issued for both offshore and domestic banking, the bank has to provide offshore and domestic Seychelles banking services a different branches

Banks providing offshore Seychelles banking services are permitted to maintain numbered accounts for their clients The annual license fee for Seychelles banking companies is not very large This fee is payable to the Central Bank in any convertible currency Currently there are five licensed foreign banks in the Seychelles, and two domestic banks which have been listed above

As the Government of Seychelles is particularly interested in developing the financial sector and tuning it to compete with other tax havens and banking centers such as the Cayman Islands, Switzerland, and Mauritius banking, special dispensation has been granted to the taxation of banks

All of the licensed offshore Seychelles banking companies are exempted from taxes and duties for a period of 20 years from the date on which license was granted to them This 20 year tax holiday serve as an attractive incentive to banks willing to go offshore

An offshore or non domestic bank may decide to pay business tax in Seychelles on its taxable income as agreed with the Commissioner of Taxes

The National Assembly of Seychelles passed the Central Bank of Seychelles Act 2004 in December 2004 This Act is aimed at providing legislation to enable the Central Bank to operate as an independent institution without any intervention from the government, and to ensure independent growth and regulation of the banking sector ensuring in it, confidence, transparency and efficiency Ramapati Singhania specializes in creating and managing web businesses. His latest website http://www.incorporation-offshore-saves-wealth.com focuses on helping you to incorporate offshore companies in Seychelles, Mauritius and BVI. You can also visit his blog, http://www.ramapatisinghania.com

Read full story

Author : Ki GrayThe term “toxic assets” is tossed around quite a bit these days, especially now that the Treasury Department has announced plans to buy up U S banks’ bad assets to the tune of $1 trillion dollars (more on that in a minute) Terms like toxic assets have become common place, like the terms mortgage meltdown, financial crisis and economic stimulus But does the American public understand what these toxic assets really are?

Let’s say you bought a house for $300,000 dollars and Bank A gave you a mortgage for that house for the full $300,000 at 6 percent interest There was no down payment, so the only collateral the bank has is the house itself Shortly after the purchase, your house is appraised for $325,000 and the bank’s “asset,” a k a your house, has increased in value Bank A packages together several of these seemingly lucrative assets and sells them to Bank B and Wall Street investors in what are called mortgage-backed securities

Unfortunately, your house is appraised again a year later for only $255,000 Multiply this scenario millions of times and you have what is known as a bank crisis due to the no longer lucrative mortgage-backed securities The mortgages backing these securities have lost value and thousands of homeowners are defaulting on these mortgage loans The bank is left holding the bag, or rather the bad debt These “assets” are no longer valuable and are “toxic” to the bank, corroding the bank’s inherent value and compromising its ability to make loans

There is nothing the banks can do about all these suddenly less valuable loans, even with most homeowners continuing to make payments Let’s say Bank A sold Bank B a bundle of mortgages that were collectively worth $300 million, made up of 1000 loans just like the no-money-down, $300,000 If all of these loans decreased in value by 15 percent, as in the example, the bank is out $4,500,0000 Again, imagine this on a nearly trillion dollar scale

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “When the banks — such as Citigroup Inc , Bank of America Corp and JPMorgan Chase & Co — started writing down the value of the securities, they reported billions of dollars of losses Their capital eroded, and they didn’t have the money to make loans An estimated $2 trillion in bad assets are now on banks’ books ”

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s solution to this huge financial fiasco is called the Public-Private Investment Program In a letter to the Wall Street Journal, Geithner explained, “The Public-Private Investment Program will purchase real-estate related loans from banks and securities from the broader markets Banks will have the ability to sell pools of loans to dedicated funds, and investors will compete to have the ability to participate in those funds and take advantage of the financing provided by the government ”

This apparently made sense to Wall Street and the stock market leaped the day Geithner released the details of his plan What it boils down to is that the FDIC and the Federal Reserve will make capital available to allow investors to buy up the so called toxic assets, thus getting them off the banks’ books The government will have much greater stake than any private investor Geithner assures the American public that “the Public-Private Investment Program will ensure that private-sector participants share the risks alongside the taxpayer, and that the taxpayer shares in the profits from these investments “Ki works as a realtor in the Austin real estate market. His website offers a graphical search of the Austin MLS. He also provides information on Austin real estate and Austin commercial real estate.

Read full story

Author : Ki Gray30 year mortgage rates dropped below 5% for the second time this year It was also the second lowest rates posted by Freddie Mac in the last 40 years (the lowest being 4 weeks ago) Rates hit 4 98 this week close to the all time low of 4 96 that was reached on January 15, 2009 The other major mortgage products also inched down this week with the exception of the 1 Year ARM The one year ARM rose from 4 80 to 4 91 This is the closest the 1 Year ARM has been to the 30 year mortgage in the last few years This basically means there is no real reason to consider the 1 year ARM since it doesn’t offer much savings compared to the 30 year rate For now the basic decision is between the 30 year fixed mortgage and the 15 year fixed mortgage Overall I think this is a positive development The 5 and 1 year ARM are the cause of many of the current foreclosures Considering the problems they have caused eliminating their widespread use in the future would be appealing Below are rates for the major mortgage products for the last few weeks

Mar 19, 2009
30-yr 4 98 15-yr 4 61 5-yr ARM 4 98 1-yr ARM 4 91

Mar 12, 2009
30-yr 5 03 15-yr 4 64 5-yr ARM 4 99 1-yr ARM 4 80

Mar 05, 2009
30-yr 5 15 15-yr 4 72 5-yr ARM 5 08 1-yr ARM 4 86

Feb 26, 2009
30-yr 5 07 15-yr 4 68 5-yr ARM 5 06 1-yr ARM 4 81

Feb 19, 2009
30-yr 5 04 15-yr 4 68 5-yr ARM 5 04 1-yr ARM 4 80

In addition to rates we also wanted to look at actual mortgage payments We looked at what the payments would be on a 200k mortgage for the last 2 weeks We also looked at what payments would be based on the rates from October 16th

Mar 19
30-yr 1071 19
15-yr 1541 25
5-yr ARM 1071 19
1-yr ARM 1062 66

Mar 12
30-yr 1077 31
15-yr 1544 33
5-yr ARM 1072 42
1-yr ARM 1049 33

Oct 16
30-yr $1258 87
15-yr $1702 87
5-yr ARM $1217 16
1-yr ARM $1093 28

All in all although rates fell below the 5 percent line this week mortgage payments are not all that much lower than they were last week But if we look back a few months we can see a huge savings when comparing the mortgage one would pay today for a 200k loan compared to October 16th

So what do we think is going to happen moving forward The general expectation is that rates are going to move down over the next month This is mostly due to the government plan to buy up over a trillion dollars of bad debt from banks Rates should probably fall down to 4 5 to 4 75 this week But, once the economy recovers rates could rise above 10% due to the massive amount of money that has been pushed into the economy during the recession It’s perfectly possible in one year we are going to see the lowest and highest mortgage rates in the last 20 years Ki works as a realtor in Austin Texas. This site is a resource on Austin Texas real estate. He also has information on mortgage interest rates and mortgage calculator code on his website.

Read full story

Author : Ki GrayThere’s an old television program that aired in the 1960’s called Hogan’s Heroes Sgt Schultz (John Banner) was one of the main characters His constant exclamation throughout his tenure on this show was, “I know nothing!” Is that where you are in regards to how to buy a home without a down payment? If so, you are about to become educated

Believe it or not, if you have decent credit - and sometimes even if you don’t! - you have alternatives as to how to purchase a home without a down payment Look at the following examples:

* VA Foreclosure Loans - What’s unique about these loans is that anyone can buy a VA foreclosed home with no-money down You can find VA foreclosures through local real estate listing agencies, typically members of Multiple Listing Service (MLS) You can also do a search on the Internet for VA home foreclosures You’ll find plenty VA sells their own repossessed homes If you are not a veteran or on active duty, however, you won’t be able to get a VA loan Instead, you’ll be required to obtain your own conventional or FHA financing Still, there is no down payment required

* Owner Financing - owner agrees to be your mortgage holder You reach an agreed-upon price with the property owner A legally binding agreement is drawn up that includes everything a mortgage loan would include as far as price, duration of loan, interest rate and loan payments The property owner accepts payments from you just like a bank or mortgage company would for a traditional loan You are considered the owner of the home, since your name is on the title/deed, along with the mortgage holder as the lien holder

* Assume a Mortgage - Some owners are having a very difficult time selling their homes due to the mortgage crisis Many are willing to allow a buyer to assume their mortgage in order to get it sold This allows them to get out of the mortgage to a certain extent and purchase another home Of course, there are requirements that the buyer must meet before the mortgage company will allow the assumption In order to assume a home loan you must qualify for the loan and pay closing costs

* Lease/Purchase - This has been a popular one for years You find property you are interested in not only renting, but buying Sometimes property will be advertised as such There are various approaches to this option

* Owner agrees to accept all rent payments over a specified time period in exchange for a down payment At the end of the specified time period you will have to obtain your own loan to pay for the remaining agreed-upon sale price of the property

* Owner agrees to accept part of the rent payment over a specified time period in exchange for a down payment At the end of the specified time period you will have to obtain your own loan for the remaining agree-upon sale price of the property

* Owner agrees to lease the home to you at a discounted rate, and you agree to obtain a loan to buy the home at a specific price within a specific timeframe The agreed upon price is typically more than if you were paying the market amount for rental Ki’s real estate business is located in central Texas. His website provides future home buyers with a free graphical search of the Austin MLS. It gives comprehensive information on Austin real estate along with a free mortgage calculator.

Read full story

Author : Tom DominFor most of us, our mortgage pipelines are in dire need of some good solid loan business If you fall in this category, it may be time to evaluate the business opportunities that await you in the Reverse Mortgage marketplace

If you’ve been paying attention at all, you probably know that the projected potential of the Reverse Mortgage market is absolutely staggering As you probably know The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) refers to a Reverse Mortgage as a HECM, which stands for Home Equity Conversion Mortgage

When you do your review and evaluation of this growing niche, be sure to take into account these thirteen (13) facts and how they can impact your mortgage future:

1 It is estimated that between 9,500 to 12,000 people a day turn 62 years of age and if they are home owners, eligible for a Reverse Mortgage

2 Seniors that are 62 years of age and older (our definition of a senior for this discussion), control more than three quarters of our nation’s wealth

3 They are living longer and continue to be more active than any generation before them They, like many of us continue to have goals, aspirations, desires and even problems that they would love to solve

4 They have equity in their homes but don,t have a clue how to convert their equity (non-liquid asset) into spendable and useable cash (a liquid asset)

5 Originations of Reverse Mortgages have increased 109% for the past few years In fact, each year for the past 5 years the number of loans has doubled each year

6 FHA endorsed 10,026 reverse mortgages in June alone, bringing the year-to-date total to 83,871 By comparison, FHA insured 8,925 loans in June 2007 totaling 80,425

7 Its estimated that there are now 75 million prospects that would benefit from this type of program and that number continues to grow every day

8 Less than one quarter of all Mortgage Companies currently offer the Reverse Mortgage product Now is the time to market Reverse Mortgages while competition is minimal

9 Recognizing our current credit crisis and the problems we have funding our normal forward based mortgages credit and credit scoring models are not used with the Reverse Mortgage product The benefits received are based on age and equity

10 The Reverse Mortgage product is a Federal Housing Authority (FHA) insured non-recourse loan and subject to FHA loan limits

11 Recent surveys of Reverse Mortgage holders indicate more than a 95% satisfaction rate of the product

12 There have been drastic improvements since the first Reverse Mortgage was written in 1989 and, the number of Lenders has increased

13 Effective January 1st, 2009, the HECM Purchase Program is now operational, allowing Seniors to purchase a primary resident

On the surface you may feel that a Reverse Mortgage could be the easiest type of loan you could ever originate After all there is no Credit Qualification, no Income Verification, and best of all your commission is generally based on the value of the home not the loan amount

But please remember a marketing niche is only as good as the dedication, knowledge, expertise, and professionalism you are willing to bring to bear on the marketplace

Yes working with Seniors can and will prove to be extremely profitable Plus You will also get personal satisfaction and gratification as a result of your efforts

If your current organization or situation does not allow you to originate Reverse Mortgages, you need to either be the catalyst to change that or, find a home that does allow you to market to Seniors

You can become very successful by dedicating yourself to Reverse Mortgages and the Senior market If you prepare yourself and your marketing program well, you can get ready to explode your Mortgage Business Tom Domin is a contributing author to The Reverse Mortgage Mentor membership training site. Put your mortgage production back-on-track with the very best Reverse Mortgage marketing training. Sign-up for our $1.00 ten (10) day trial membership at http://www.TheReverseMortgageMentor.com/

Read full story