wa . . . from okaying shaming child shoplifters to demanding women should also serve NS & opposing maternity leave as perk . . . now arguing genuinely mis-sold investors should not get a single cent back . . .
I fully agree with Mr Yeh. It is impossible now to say who has been genuinely mis-sold the products. Even if I am a young educated person who had bought the funds knowing all the facts and risks at that time, I would still claim now that the banks had mis-sold the products to me in order to recoup my entire investment now if possible.
Everybody is now claiming to have been mis-sold the products, and there is not a single person now who has the guts to admit that they were greedy for the 5% interest compared to the 1% interest if they were to continue with their the fixed deposit.
We can also look at this from another angle. Suppose Lehman had not collapsed, and there was no financial crisis. Suppose the investment had done very well, and instead of the promised 5% interest payable every 6 months, all the investors got an extra 100% interest every month - the investments had done extremely extremely well!
Would anybody now claim that they had been mis-sold the products? No! Of course not. All the investeors will in fact now boast to their friends that they had the foresight and brillance to invest in the superior product 2 years ago!
So if Lehman collapsed, the banks had mis-sold the product to me.
But if the investment performed very well and I receive a double bonus interest payout, I had the foresight to invest in this solid investment!
The issue is, elderly, uneducated people were not even told by the vulture relationship managers that fixed deposit and investment deposit are different. These vultures should have made it that all are fixed deposits.
DBS should be taught a lesson. The bank people are always pushing all kinds of financial products when customers make visits to the bank. Especially
vulnerable are the old and the less educated. DBS should thus be made to pay for it. If they do not have to bear any losses, the bank people will continue to push all kinds of financial products when this saga is over.
Although I feel sorry for those who lost their entire life savings, I feel that the bank should not compensate them. In investments, one has to be careful, there will be losses and there will be gains. I know some people regard going to the 4-D booth a form of investment.
Yes, the banks even the so-called "People bank - POSB" were very pushy. The tellers too pushed the investment products and created a long queue for the people behind who were there to put in their money.
In recent years, the banks in S'pore had deliberately set the FD interest rates so bloody low. The banks wanted all the people in S'pore who have money (even S$10K) to put the amount in structured plans. The banks also told the investors that most of the structured plans are cappital or principle protected. Their methods had always been highlighting the high interest rates of the structured plans. The RMs had always told investors that all it takes was to put their money in these structured plans and in three or nine months' time, they will receive a cheque with high 'X' amount of interests.
The banks and financial houses should be made to bear the responsibility for mis-selling.
I remember that there were one or two letters published in the ST Forum Page in the past from people who complained that banks pushed the structured investments to their elderly parents when they visited the banks to renew or put money into simple FD. Yet, no actions were taken by the government to stop the practise.
The RMs were young graduates who did not even know what they are selling.
The question is: Did the banks and financial institutions mis-represent the products to investors? If they had told investors that it was 'capital guaranteed' when it's not, then they have to answer to all their investors, regardless of whether they are young or old, etc.
October 25, 2008 Saturday, 05:34 AM
