By Ignatius Low & Francis Chan

LOWLY-EDUCATED retiree investors who put their savings in structured products linked to the collapsed Lehman Brothers have been singled out by the Government for special attention.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) wants banks and financial institutions to give this group top priority when investigating complaints of mis-selling.

It also added that banks should not take an 'overly legalistic' approach in dealing with such cases.

Singapore decides not to follow HK's buy-back approach

By Francis Chan

THE Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has decided against following Hong Kong's lead in requiring banks to buy back Lehman Brothers-linked Minibonds at market price from investors.

MAS managing director, Mr Heng Swee Keat, told reporters at a media conference yesterday that one of its key priorities now was to ensure that HSBC Trustee, the trustee for the Minibond programme, carefully considers all options and acts in the interests of investors.

He said that the trustee, which is now working on finding a new swap counterparty to replace collapsed Lehman in the programme, was already acting on the requests of investors who had submitted a petition to the MAS on Sept 24.

What is expected of banks

'Where a customer has been mis-sold the product or where the product was clearly inappropriate to his circumstances, the financial institution should reach a fair settlement in full or in part. This has to be assessed on a case-by-case basis.' -MAS managing director Heng Swee Keat in an e-mail reply to The Straits Times

A GOOD MOVE, BUT WILL IT BE ENOUGH?

'This group obviously needs more help...as far as I know, during last Saturday's rally, this was the group of people that came shouting or crying. I do not think it's the right approach to deal with this on a case-by-case basis... But I like what MAS is saying that they are asking the banks and FIs to do the right thing.' -Mr Leong Sze Hian, president of the Society of Financial Service Professionals

'I think it is a good sign that the MAS is finally putting more emphasis on this particular group of investors, but I am 54 now and still working - so it is a grey area for me. Let's hope they will examine each case by its merit.' -Mr L. Tan, a DBS High Notes 5 investor. Yesterday, he lodged a case of mis-selling to DBS Bank.

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