richard123

You can open an account in Singapore via www.citibank.com.sg You'll need a bank record from Australia (or wherever you have had a bank account for a year or so) and I think the minimum was about USD20K to set it up (or maybe USD10K?? - it'll tell you on the site - look for IPB - International Personal Banking). Then you just send the wires directly to s/pore and the cheques too (or via your Australian address - that's what I do - especially since S/pore is a "banned" country for so many programs) and you withdraw the money via ATMs in Oz. You can take out AUD2K per day and there are no ATM fees.

I have used 4 different Westpac branches here. I finally found one (in the Eastern suburbs) where the manager agreed to just let me drop the cheques off and the do the processing at their leisure. I think it's up to the manager whether they allow it, because I tried to do the same somewhere else and they wouldn't let me. So I'd stand there for up to 1 hr while they did it (you know what I mean, Im sure).

Also, if you have any hassles with the bank wanting to send the big ones (usually USD5K+) for "collection") then just get them to ring head office in Sydney to get an approval number. The local manager can only approve to a limit, and after that they havta ring Sydney HO. But some of them don't know that and wanna send it for collection.
The number they should ring is 02 9767 0049. It rings out sometimes - especially around lunch time - but it does work!