I’ve dealt with Eurobic and Bison and Bison seems to be the most nimblest. Here are my worries with Bisonbank.
IMGA-R shares
Bisonbank issues IMGA-R shares, not the regular IMGA shares you see in open market. I’m assuming that bison bank buys the shares on your behalf and keeps it in its books. See answers from Jeff Bison bank stipulations and concerns - #2 by jb4422.
Maybe for finance savvy persons it might not be a big risk. I’ve dealt with investments in India and USA. India seems to be best when it comes to safeguarding investments - all investments are held by government ledgers and not brokerages. If a brokerage goes down, you still have your investments. It’s clear cut.
In USA govt regulates the brokerages, but there is a possibility that a brokerage might mix your assets with their asset. In the event the brokerage fails, your investment might go down with it. But at least there is SIPC when this situation happens. This is what I refer to as institutional risk.
I don’t know what is the exact mechanism in Portugal. That is a big hole in my knowledge. In US when Silicon Valley Bank and other banks failed, the govt intervened and make sure that depositors didn’t lose money. But based on recent actions by Portugal govt, I don’t think they would be willing to step in and save investors. There is an anti investor sentiment with Portugal govt and public.
IMGA redemption halt
IMGA has some stipulation that if multiple people start redeeming, they would just not honor the redemption request. I don’t remember the number, but if p**p hits the fan, it’s not as robust as real estate option. Hence my opinion that real estate is the best option. With real estate no one can stop you from selling.
I agree that redemption would restart later, but I’m sure the market price is going to be low.
Single point of Failure (Found only after initiating redemption)
Nuno seems to be the single point of failure for IMGA. I commend Nuno for stepping and helping us, but there seems to be clear lack of systems in place. E.g when I asked to update my address, I get answers from the customer care. But when I ask how to redeem, they go silent.
When I make a request to move money, I don’t get an acknowledgement from the bank with details of my request. It’s only, “a request is registered”. In future I wouldn’t be able to contest the details of my request (acc no, amount, date etc). This is fine as long as everything is working fine, but can go horribly wrong.
When one of my money movement request didn’t go through, I couldn’t call anyone to get an answer. Emails go unanswered, secured messages go unanswered. I called someone in Bison bank and he said, we will continue the conversation with info@bisonbank, but once I sent email, nothing happened.
I deliberately waited till the last moment to reach out to Nuno for help. None of the banks I’ve dealt with earlier in India or US had this problem. I don’t have a single person to get everything done with the bank. I call the bank, there is a process, someone takes care of it.
If p**p hits the fan, this will make all investors life miserable.