SINCE Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection, there has been endless discourse on the Minibond series, given that many Singaporeans are affected. Many questions remain unanswered. Will investors be able to recoup some, if not all, of their losses? When will this issue be resolved? Who is ultimately responsible? Will the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), in its role as financial regulator, arbitrate?

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Some yes, some no. Keep their finger cross, just becareful do not let the middle finger slipped.

IN HK the regulators gets rapped by the legislators for not regulated the sale of these high risk products. What about here in Spore? silence all round . not one squeak from MPs about MAS's role in this fingers burnt or rather funeral money also gone with the Brothers?

This boils down to concept for Risk Management & management of Solvency. From current business reporting standards, who could have said (12~24 months ago) that the Big 7 of minibonds were more or even as risky than any other corporate bonds. Or are bank deposits in Singapore safe?

Lesson learned could be that investing is your money, so keep an eye out. You could have cancel/withdraw early to cut loss this year when reports of banks problems (HSBC, Citi...). But is all in hindsight.

Useless people like you want everything in your favour. You want safety, you want good returns, you want prestige, etc. How do you expect any investment to be risk free. It is not bank deposit where at least some deposit insurance is there. If you are adverturous and take risk in investing in non-fixed deposit products, then go and face the music. dont complain. And least dont blame the relationship manager. They get money by selling it to you. They are like prostitutes. They will not say 'hey..dont invest in this..it is risky..'.

it's the old and illiterates that suffer. they know nuts what the relationship managers are talking. kena psycho to part their hard earned $$ with them. yes, the banks want proof for misrepresentation. what proof can these poor folks produce? all are done verbally. the black and white protects the banks.

There is no free lunch in this world. 'Greed" is the main course here.

Low risk is NOT = no risk.

The so-called relationship manager might not even know what was she selling at that time.

In any investment, there are gains and there are losss. If someone is unsure or unfamiliar with the products, they shouldn't have bought it in the first place.

If the situation is reversed, they are earning good profits, would they have written in and compliment Lehman Brothers and the entity banks???

Blame yourself. No one is responsible to you and what answers do you expect to hear? Time to lick your wounds and learn to be a wiser man.

THE BANKS ARE AT FAULT. I am not an investor of bond or unit trust, though I buy foreign currency/stocks. Before AUD/Euro crash, I sell off everything.

Why I say banks are at fault is because you look at any bank - the account managers. How old are they ? U regard them as youngsters in office suites or professionals ?

In many case, the product they recommend - Eg HN5, they dun even know what bonds is let alone how financial functions. They just simply memorise the selling scripts, take the big terms and 'slap' onto you. When this happens :

- Normal ppl gets intimidated when they hear big terms they cannot understand - aka to mountain tortise and yet investor must pretend they knows.

- Look at the banks just a moment ago, so many ppl are cash rich queueing to offload their savings at the PERSONAL BANKING counters. Long queues you know, where got time to explain nicely to you and let u ask Qs ?

Now times are good, those rich ppl gets poorer. Middle income got cash one become kings ! Look at the retailers/hawkers when times are good - they treat customer like dirt. Now econ down, it is time you think back which are the reatailers that shortchange u and stop patronising them, they will feel biz is hard and even dealt a blow to them.

I never spend excessively in Singapore, I buy what I need. I save the money to spend when I go overseas. Why ? More value for money, I feel happy spending aboard them treated like dirt in Singapore retailers.

A famous phase they say "singapore market is too small". During F1 suntect retailers can say, all tourist go to see the race, few locals are there to shops. I thought local market is small and useless ?

Next starts shopping for Cat B cars, these cars are less popular when market crash. And LTA is sooooo smart to say that last review more CATB are deregisters and therefore they will adjust more CATB COEs this seasons....

FOR GOV, I think GOV should step in and enforce the bank to refund LEMON BROs bond investor. This is a good time to win the ppl over, if ppl cannot recover their hardearn savings due to mislead. Then they will never have confidences in the system, ie why HK\TWN etc all refunds but not SIN ? Next GE will lose votes you know ? Also DBS is good, it annoucement divides the investor to one-by-one - How many can get back their money ? I strongly recommend companies to use this tactics in future.