Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Lodge a complaint with the financial institution

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Lodge a complaint with the financial institution

1. I have received the particulars of 70 investors of the credit linked securities. It will be quite difficult for me to communicate with you individually. I hope that you will refer to my blog each day to get the updated information.

2. I have arranged for two friends to help me to manage this group:

Peter Ng
Andrew Loh

3. I have asked them to arrange a meeting for the investors to get together. Wait for further details.

4. The Monetary Authority of Singapore had advised these investors to approach the financial institution who sold them the structured product. The investor could seek redress from the financial institution for the loss due to mis-selling. The financial institution is required to have a process to deal with these complaints.

5. I suggest that you should, as soon as possible, write a letter addressed to the CEO of the financial institution from whom you have bought the credit linked securities (i.e Minibond, High Notes, etc). The letter should state the following:

a) What did you invest in, i.e. name of product, amount invested and other particulars?
b) How you happened to invest in these securities, e.g. convinced by the marketing officer to make the investment
c) Any assurances (verbal or otherwise) that you received concerning the low risk nature
d) Your personal risk profile, i.e. were you risk adverse?
e) Were you informed by the adviser about the nature of the risk?
f) Why you feel that you have not been properly advised, i.e. mis-selling, by the adviser?
g) Why a risky investment is not suitable for your circumstances
h) If you have any written evidence to support your statement, you should provide it in your letter.

6. You should send the letter as early as possible, to register your complaint of mis-selling. At this time, you do not need to have a sworn statement, i.e. affidavit. If necessary, you can prepare an affidavit at a later date, using a copy of your letter.

7. You should also see your Member of Parliament and give a copy of your letter to your MP. Let your MP be aware of your feeling on this matter and how painful it is to lose the hard earned money.

7 comments:

Desean said...: Where not setup a closed group mailing list to communicate with the group? A mailing list can be easily be created at http://groups.google.com/; September 23, 2008 10:07 PM
symmetrix said...: Dear Mr Tan,

We investors are not legal people. It would be helpful if a draft format of the letter to the bank be provided, with the usual legalese. We do not want to write something in the letter that may incriminate us later. Hence the request for a "standard" letter where we fill in the blanks. Tks.; September 23, 2008 11:16 PM
Anonymous said...: Dear Mr Tan,
I approached the bank to purchase the minibond after reading the advertisement in the newspaper. Can I still lodge the complaint? I'm a retiree with low risk profile. Appreciate yr advise.
Thks.
Jo; September 24, 2008 9:16 AM
Anonymous said...: Hi Mr Tan,

I have bought the Lehman Brothers Minibonds Series 3 thru a Financial Advisor from GYC (not directly from the Financial Institution). It was then done thru OCBC Securities.
My Financial Advisor suddenly could not answer any of my queries (she sounded like an expert perviously when closing those sales). In this case, do I write to the CEO of this Financial Advisory Firm and not the Financial Institution.

Thks for your advice.; September 24, 2008 5:56 PM
Anonymous said...: My retirement fund has been eaten up by DBS High Notes 5, and I hold both MAS and DBS responsible. MAS should not have approved the product, and DBS has misled investors into believing that is a low risk low return product, and even their sellers were not aware of the speculative mechanisms behind the product.
I'm waiting for someone knowledgeable to lead a class action against both MAS and DBS.; September 25, 2008 12:14 PM
Muthu said...: I was coaxed and ill adviced by my Relationship Manager into transferring my money from my saving account to the HighNote 5-(that's my CPF retirement nest )telling me that it is 'very' low risk, capital guaranteed and I would be guaranteed a regular quarterly income for the next 5 yrs.Now she is telling me the opposite story. I'm lost. Mr Tan , can you help us(senior citizens)to get back our money or at least recommend a lawyer to take legal action against DBS; September 25, 2008 8:47 PM
Anonymous said...: The letter is very useful even for other products. Will take note of all the points before buying any products.; October 09, 2008 11:50 PM