Remisiers used to have an enviable image as a business with easy earnings limited only by their clients they have. I can still remember in the heady bull markets when the top remisier in Malaysia confirmed his revenue for a certain year was Rm12 million! What a nice business to be in, especially when you have clients buying and selling big volumes of shares!
Since then, repeated bear markets and changes in the trading systems have seen remisiers having to compete with bank's dealers who could offer very competitive rates which made a lot of difference to small timers. Not only the rate of their share of commissions was reduced, but the minimum brokerage of Rm40 plus stamp duty and clearing fee meant each lot of 1000 shares requires almost 10 sen difference between selling and buying price just to break even! On the other hand, trading with bank's dealers requires only a minimum of Rm12++ which requires only 3 sen difference to break even.
Now, Maybank has provided online trading facilities for those with shares registered under their own names (bank's dealers deal under nominee), without having to call up their remisiers. The brokerage is almost the same. It requires activating Maybank Investment Bank account (distinct from Maybank Share Investment Centre) and new password. The best part is that if you click your portfolio, all the shares under your personal name are already listed with previous day's price (I think), complete with total number of shares and bank and market values. I can see the advantage in having shares under our own names and with the e-dividend form completed, no worries about dividend cheques lost in mail or not banked in because of being misplaced. On the other hand, I think shares under nominees incur service charge when dividends are received.
By the way, I have posted before about Maybank taking customers' complaints seriously. My better half had her share of problems complaining about subscription charge on her credit card which they refused to waive for a number of years. Because of that, she cancelled her Visa card and close her current account. As expected, there was hassle over the small charges due to miscommunication or delay in cancellation of the card, like the minimum Rm5 chargeable for even a few sen. Imagine her anger when she went to have the final cancellation, the Maybank officer just rudely took the card and cut it with a pair of scissors and just walked off without saying a word! To add salt to injury, today she received a call from the card centre enquiring why she cancelled it!
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