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HONG KONG - HONG Kong's chief executive Donald Tsang said on Wednesday that some city banks had been found to have mis-sold financial products backed by failed US investment bank Lehman Brothers.
He demanded the banks indicate this week whether they will adopt a government proposal requiring them to buy back the products from investors at their market value.
Mr Tsang told reporters in a briefing after his annual policy address that the government had waited too long for a reply from the banks on the proposal, which was announced on October 6.
'We feel that... we have already waited a rather long time,' he said.
'Also, I heard from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority that there were already cases in which mis selling was found to be involved,' he said.
'Under the circumstances, I demand that the banks must give a reply within this week.'
The authority, the city's de-facto central bank, said it had received some 7,000 complaints involving more than 40,000 investors who said their banks had not told them the risks associated with the products.
The investors, who are estimated to have put 12.7 billion dollars (S$2.4 billion) into the products, worried that they could only get back a portion of their money under the government plan because of the dire market condition.
Lehman Brothers, one of Wall Street's most established banks, collapsed last month, sparking turmoil on financial markets across the world. -- AFP
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