Friday, October 03, 2008

For defensive investors

Hi Mr. Tan,

I refer to the letter "High Notes 2 Not a Low-risk product" from Ms Janet Mohan, a V.P. of DBS. This letter was published today (2.10.08) on the forum page of the straits times.

In her letter, Ms Mohan stated that "DBS High Notes 2 (HN2) is a five-year, structured, credit -linked note designed for investor seeking enhanced yield by providing exposure to a basket of highly rated entities....."

She went on to state that "HN2 is not a low-risk product nor principal-protected".

However, according to the Pricing Statement (page 14), High Notes 2 is described as “…5-year structured first-to-default credit linked notes designed for defensive investors seeking enhanced yield by providing exposure to a basket of highly rated regional and international banks……”. The description implies that High Notes 2 is a safe investment for "defensive" investor. The word “defensive” was omitted in Ms Mohan’s letter, probably intentionally.

This shows how the bank is twisting its words to defend itself from alleged misrepresentation.

Kindly post this email in your blog as I wish to share my observation with others who could lose their money in HN2.

Thank you.

Wilson Tan .
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The first thing I told the DBS officer when she met me was that I did not want to lose any capital (I lost a lot in 2001). She introduced the "safe" HN2 to me. At 4-5%, one cannot expect that to be high risk! And DEFENSIVE investors cannot be those seeking high risk investments either!

October 10, 2008 3:12 PM

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