SBI and NISA (do I need an SBI bank account?)

[Spydarman]

Hello,

I'm trying to set up my NISA through SBI.

Question:
I already have a bank account at SMBC, but should I set up another bank account with SBI (NEOBANK)?
Are there benefits to using SBI Neobank?

If possible I'd like to make things easy on myself, and not do anything unnecessary.

Thanks for any replies and help in advance.

Regards,

[Paulo]

You don't need a Neobank account, you can transfer funds in from many different financial institutions.

One advantage of having one though is to easily, quickly and at no costs move funds in and out. From Neobank you have your yen denominated account and you have what they call a hybrid account. Anything that you move into the hybrid account from the regular account (which you can do for free unlimited times) will appear in your available funds in your SBI account.

[adamu]

Are there benefits to using SBI Neobank?

It's about 8x cheaper to convert USD in Neobank than SBI securities. So if you are buying/selling any US stocks, sending USD instead of JPY in/out is cheaper.

But.. it's easier just to buy JPY denominated funds anyway, so maybe a moot point.

[TokyoBoglehead]

When I signed up for SBi, it was only a few lines more to get a NEO account. I did not 100% realize I was applying for it alongside the trading account.

I think it is worth it as the NEO account offers great flexibility.

I currently am married to my Yucho account as it works with 95% of my current accounts and I am afraid to touch anything lest it all crumble into a confusion of middle names and halfbit kana. However, I would prefer for it to all be with NEO or Shinsei.