Source: Business Times,  18 Dec 2008

 

More than 90% of complainants have been interviewed, says MAS


Most investors who claim to have been mis-sold structured notes linked to bankrupt Lehman

Brothers will be told the outcome of their complaint from mid-January, the Monetary Authority of

Singapore (MAS) said yesterday.

 

Over 90 per cent of the investors who have complained have been interviewed, and the 10

financial institutions that sold the products have reached ‘provisional decisions’ on about four in

five of these cases, MAS said.

 

As at Dec 14, the 10 institutions had received 4,978 formal complaints – 815 for DBS High Notes

5, 4,001 for Lehman Minibonds, and 162 for Merrill Lynch Jubilee Series 3 LinkEarner notes.

In a few ‘clear-cut’ cases, investors have already been told the outcome of their complaints, MAS

said. But most investors will only find out next month, pending final reviews and checks by the

institutions.

 

Also, ‘from a review of a sample of cases, it seems clear that some complainants should be

prepared to take responsibility for their investment decisions’, MAS said.

 

Shane Tregillis, MAS deputy managing director for market conduct, said: ‘We have asked the

institutions to conduct some final due diligence on the remaining complaints to ensure that they

have taken into account the independent persons’ recommendations, likely issues arising from

any MAS investigation findings and to check for general consistency in the application of the

complaints resolution framework.

 

‘This is expected to take a few more weeks.’

Although that will mean a delay in notifying investors, ‘we believe that the final outcome will better

serve investors’ interests’, he added.

 

About 10,000 retail investors here are believed to have invested more than $500 million into the

Lehman-linked products.

 

MAS said that it has been working closely with the independent parties appointed to oversee the

financial institutions’ handling of customers’ complaints. MAS is also conducting its own

investigations of the selling policies and practices at each institution, including the training and

supervision of relationship managers, and its due diligence into the structured notes. It will

provide an update at the end of January.

In Hong Kong, 17 banks have settled 616 cases where customers claimed that they were missold

products linked to Lehman, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said yesterday,

reported Bloomberg.

 

Those customers bought some HK$257 million (S$48.9 million) worth of such products. Banks

there are in the process of settling another 1,000 claims involving HK$429 million invested in the

products, a HKMA spokesman told Bloomberg.

 

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