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WHATS NEW AT BI.C?

BankINTRO.com Web Site

Fall - Winter 2008 BankINTRO.com is pleased to announce that our opinion on the US-dollar price of oil was close but definitely correct in our thinking during our currency review on the US-dollar (USD). Our currency research report was posted live on our currency index section in early February 2008 at a time when the world crude oil price was rising. At the time, oil prices were in the 120 – 140 USD range, we argued that the world economy was awash in oil.

It was just announced in early December 2008 that Merrill Lynch is forecasting oil to possibly bottom out at 25 USD per barrel. For timely ahead of the pack macro-economic and currency opinions, please contact us for currency consulting services. In mid December 2008, oil traded in the 34 USD per barrel range.

BI.C WORLDWIDE EYE - PRODUCTS & SERVICES - BANKING
RBC Royal Bank of Canada - Global Private Banking. RBC provides a valuable foreign exchange service for both individuals or corporations who conduct international transactions or wish to hold funds in a number of currencies including the world's major currencies in addition to several minor currencies. For more information, please click RBC FOREIGN EXCHANGE SERVICE.

RBC Royal Bank of Canada - protect yourself from a volatile currency. Consider 'The International Currencies Fund' as offered by RBC, minimum investment of $10,000 USD is required.

Credit Suisse - the safety this large Swiss bank provides various sound insurance products for all of your needs. Credit Suisse insurance lab including ‘Annuity Insurance’ products to maintain your standard of living even after you retire with a pension that guarantees a life-long, fixed and regular income.

Kitco.com - interested in buying and/or selling gold, silver and platinum coins? How about palladium 1 oz bars? Try Kitco.com

DIRECTeBANK.com - a Canadian based online Internet payment and transfer services company.

FOR CANADIAN CITIZENS

GoldMoney.com - a new easy simplified way for Canadian customers to buy GoldGrams by using ‘electronic checks’. The GoldMoney website is now linked into the Canadian banking system.

FOR U.S. CITIZENS

Everbank.com - World Currency Accounts
Everbank is a FDIC insured federal savings bank headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. Everbank’s National Banking Group is the largest private held branchless banking offering in the United States. Everbank provides several multi-currency accounts to choose from including their new ‘Chinese Renminbi Access Deposit Accounts’ as well as their ‘Asian Advantage CD’ which consists of the New Zealand dollar, Japanese yen, Thai baht and Singapore dollar. BankINTRO.com recommends you research this very unique and intelligent bank with their various WorldCurrency Access TM Deposit Accounts.

eBank.com - Virtual Online Banking
eBank.com based out of Atlanta, Georgia is the new way for banking in this new 21st century knowledge economy by targeting the Internet for its business. The net result is less overhead and preferred interest rates for you the consumer along with less fees!

BANKING NEWS
BankINTRO.com current recommendations for Global Banking and Asset Diversification:

RBC Royal Bank of Canada for Global Private Banking. Please visit the OPEN A BANK ACCOUNT SECTION and click EUROPE – the CHANNEL ISLANDS or the CARIBBEAN section for further details on international banking and offshore financial strategies.

For those individuals and businesses interested in Swiss banking, please visit the updated OPEN A BANK ACCOUNT section and click SWITZERLAND for further details. New ideas and recommendations for diversifying your wealth with Swiss financial institutions include UBS, Credit Suisse, Bank Vontobel AG, Rothschild Bank AG, Julius Baer, EFG International, Mirabaud & Cie, Micheloud & Cie.

Chase based out of New York, New York, USA. Please visit the OPEN A BANK ACCOUNT section and click on UNITED STATES for further details on opening a bank account in America from anywhere in the world for non-nationals. For American nationals, BankINTRO.com recommends Florida based EVERBANK FINANCIAL CORP.

For those interested in establishing themselves in the Caribbean, BankINTRO.com recommends two first class global banks, Scotiabank and FirstCaribbean (FirstCaribbean is the product of the 2002 merger of the Caribbean banking operations of UK based Barclays PLC and Canadian based ‘Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce’ – CIBC). Please visit the OPEN A BANK ACCOUNT section and click CARIBBEAN for further banking region details.

The Middle East & Asia are now important fast growing asset rich regions. We are now very pleased at BankINTRO.com to recommend Canadian based Scotiabank for various locations throughout Asia for global banking services and RBC Royal Bank of Canada for banking in the Middle East. Please click on the MIDDLE EAST & ASIA within the OPEN A BANK ACCOUNT section for further banking information.

Our United Kingdom banking section now has live links to the following top tier UK based global banks that of Lloyds TSB Group, RBS, Barclays PLC and HSBC. Please re-visit this UK banking section for further updates in the weeks ahead as presented by BankINTRO.com.

Recent Global Banking Headlines:

March 2009 Switzerland, Liechtenstein has bowed to growing international pressure from the OECD to relax bank secrecy rules. The Swiss have agreed to release bank clients’ information based on a case by case situation but overall bank secrecy will remain.

March 2009 The UK government has taken a majority equity holding of UK based Lloyds Banking Group PLC to at least 65 percent. Lloyds is the UK’s third largest bank.

March 2009 Citigroup trades below 1 USD per share on the NYSE in early March 2009 after the U.S. government gave the global bank a larger bailout package. The U.S. government now controls upwards of 36 percent of the equity base of Citigroup. Fortunately, Citi shares have rebounded by March 23, 2009 closing at 3.13 USD per share after news of the latest renewed U.S. banking sector rescue package.

March 2009 HSBC announces a rights issue valued at 17.7 billion USD to shore up capital. In addition, HSBC sold American based consumer credit company Household. It has been a very busy time for UK based HSBC.

February 2009 Paris based global bank BNP Paribas SA, France’s largest bank announced that its planned purchase of Belgium and Luxembourg based Fortis will have a neutral impact on its tier 1 capital ratios. Under the original proposal, BNP Paribas SA was expecting a 35 basis point gain in Tier 1. Accordingly, BNP Paribas SA shares fell 14 percent with the news.

BI.C CURRENCY INDEX - RECENT UPDATES

Chili - March 2, 2009
Pakistan - February 24, 2009
Colombia - December 12, 2008
New Zealand - December 5, 2008
Lebanon - October 19, 2008

RECENT CURRENCY CRASHES

South Korea – March 2009
The South Korean won has been in a freefall over the last year down 55 percent to the USD recently trading at 1570 KRW to the USD in early March 2009. The South Korean Central Bank has been unloading USD reserves to help defend the won. Reserve assets now stand at only 201 billion USD which is just above one year short term external borrowing requirements; this is an insufficient ratio for currency safeness.

Kazakhstan – February 2009
The tenge (KZT) was devalued by almost 20 percent due to the collapse in world oil prices since summer 2008 coupled with a sharp depreciation in the Russian rouble. A new currency band of plus/minus 3 percent is in place for the tenge for a trading range of 147 – 153 KZT to the USD.

Poland – January 2009
The Polish zloty (PLN) has sold off significantly since July 2008; the currency is down 39 percent to Euroland euro and 61 percent to the USD. The zloty as measured by purchasing power parity is now undervalued by approximately 40 percent to the USD as of late January 2009. The severe exchange correction has caught several Polish companies offside in currency exposure and revealed flawed hedging programs.

CURRENCY NEWS

Gold – March 2009
Gold bullion is performing well against all fiat currencies with gold trading at over 900 USD an ounce and at around the 1000 USD an ounce level during February 2009.

Zimbabwe – March 2009
Zimbabwe during February 2009 announced that they will drop 12 zeroes from the currency note so 1 trillion old Zimbabwe dollars (ZWD) will be valued at 1 ZWD. The black market exchange rate for the ZWD was estimated at 300 trillion old ZWD to 1 USD. However, recent reports by mid March 2009 have the Zimbabwean authorities abandoning the ZWD entirely allowing citizens to transact business in other currencies. The immediate impact is the elimination of hyperinflation that reportedly hit a world record 90 sextillion percent. Hyperinflation thus destroyed the value of the Zimbabwean dollar (ZWD), it no longer has any value. Proposed currencies to replace the ZWD include the South African Rand (ZAR), the US-dollar (USD), Botswana pula (BWP), Euroland euro (EUR), the British pound (GBP) and others are under consideration. The current circulations of alternative currencies are now giving a much needed helpful economic bounce to the Zimbabwean economy.