How to open a stock trading account in Singapore

My aunt called me out of the blue one day when I was busy at work.

She wanted to know how to open a stock trading account in Singapore.

She had seen her friends having great dividends or profiting from the stock market, and she wanted to have a share in it.

I asked her about her main bank account.  Was it a DBS account, OCBC account, or UOB account?

Her main bank account was UOB. 

I told her to go to the bank, informed the teller that she wanted to open a stock trading account, and she had no The Central Depository (Pte) Ltd  (CDP) account or stock trading account.

I told her to inform the teller that she wanted a General Interbank Recurring Order (GIRO) to pay for her shares too.

In the context of Singapore, all our shares are held by The Central Depository (Pte) Ltd, unless you assign the shares to the bank to get loan.

That means we can buy and sell through many brokerage houses, and our shares will be credit or debit from our account at CDP.

CDP will send statements to us regularly to show our existing holdings, and to update us on the dividend payout.

After I put down the phone with my aunt, I started to pray for whoever was going to serve her.

My aunt did not know how to read or write in English, but she was very talkative, and very inquisitive. 

Whoever going to serve her would have to spend a few hours with her.  My aunt would ask the person serving her personal questions: such as single or married, how many children he or she had, and where he or she lived.

All those forms were in English, and the teller or customer service officer had to explain everything to her.

The forms came with many clauses, disclaimers and all types of service charges were indicated, so the customer service officer had to explain everything, especially the service charges.

She spent a few hours in the bank, and got everything done.

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