Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Petition to Singapore Government

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Petition to Singapore Government - 983 signatures

I will be handing over the Petition tomorrow (9 October) to Dr. Andrew Khoo, Executive Director of Capital Markets of MAS. The Petition is addressed to the Senior Minister and Chairman of MAS, Mr. Goh Chok Tong. Mr. Goh was not able to receive the petition personally and has asked me to pass it to Dr. Khoo.

The wording of the Petition is below. The final Petition has 983 signatures. I have removed signatories with incomplete particulars. The original list has more than 1,000 signatories.

PETITION TO SINGAPORE GOVERNMENT

1. We write to petition the Singapore Government, particularly the Commercial Affairs Department (Singapore Police Force) and/or the Monetary Authority of Singapore, to conduct a full and independent inquiry in relation to the credit linked securities sold by various financial institutions in Singapore. These structured products include, but are not limited to, the Lehman Minibonds, DBS High Notes, Morgan Stanley Pinnacles Notes and Merrill Lynch Jubilee Notes.

2. Singaporeans, including the persons who have signed this petition, lost their hard-earned savings by investing in these financial products. Such products clearly did not suit the risk profiles of these consumers. The consumers were not made aware of the high risks involved in the financial product when buying the product. They became innocent victims of misrepresentation by the financial institutions that distributed the structured products.

3. We now wish to be assured that those who invested in such financial products have not been victims of negligent and/or dishonest conduct and/or fraud by these financial institutions.

4. The Government has a duty to ensure that investment products are marketed and sold appropriately in our jurisdiction. Such products must be sold in a manner compliant with the laws of Singapore. Financial institutions, including their respective key management, that do not follow the laws or regulations applicable to them must be held accountable for such breaches.

5. Please commence a full and independent inquiry into the sale of structured products by various financial institutions in Singapore. If the inquiry deems necessary, the Attorney-General of Singapore should act against these financial institutions.

6. We also ask the Government to help these investors to claim fair and adequate compensation from these financial institutions for their losses which are caused by the mis-conduct of these financial institutions.

7. We ask the Government to act now and restore the peoples' faith in our financial system.

24 comments:

ym said...: good luck...

hope the gahmen does something significant to help retirees whose savings have been wiped out..

global recession/depression is increasingly likely scenario..; October 08, 2008 4:56 PM
Anonymous said...: I think everyone complains when they lose money not when they earn money even tho they never understood the product they bought.

Chow-kah as they say in Hokkien.

I think a skilful lawyer will take apart anyone of this investors who claimed to have been cheated and dare to sue . I suspect that is why they prefer to hide under the cloak of this petition !

Greed man ! Greed I say !!; October 08, 2008 5:49 PM
Anonymous said...: Mr Tan, you are our HERO.

When the next Presidential election comes, please submit your name to be our next President of Singapore.

I am sure many people will vote for you.

Thank you Mr Tan.

Lost Soul.; October 08, 2008 5:56 PM
hongjun said...: I salute your initiative.; October 08, 2008 6:56 PM
Anonymous said...: Mr Tan,
Thank you for all the hard work that you and your team have put in for the benefit of all affected investors.

Grateful investor; October 08, 2008 8:32 PM
Anonymous said...: Dear Mr Tan,

Thank You for the effort. I was in the dark on what need to be done since 15thSep, FI just asked me to wait. 3 days ago, I bumped into your blog, I followed your advice and lodge a complaint to MAS and signed up the petition. I am not optimistic about the outcome of the complaint but at least I have tried.; October 08, 2008 9:23 PM
Anonymous said...: Make money keep quiet. Lose money then raise a hue and cry. My bet... nothing will come out of this.; October 08, 2008 10:54 PM
hongjun said...: anonymous [10:54pm],

I am sharing same sentiments as you.

hongjun; October 08, 2008 11:16 PM
Anonymous said...: stock market is down down down...i will just take whatever i have and start to buy into stocks should be able to recover the loss in no time.
Get over the lehman issue. It's a GLOBAL crisis....tell myself the more i dwell into the losses, the lousier i will feel. Better to look FORWARD and let go!; October 08, 2008 11:28 PM
chen said...: Dear Mr Tan,
Me and my family thank you for hard
work. takegoodcare; October 08, 2008 11:35 PM
Anonymous said...: Dear Mr Tan
I am a retiree in my late sixties. Desperate to seek your kind and expert advice. Discovered para 10 of my signed Letter of Minibond (Series 7&8)issued by Hong Leong Finance as follows :
10 "I acknowledge that investments in the Notes are not deposits with or other liabilities of Lehman Bros S'pore and its afflilates. None of Lehman Bros etc stand behind the capital value of performance of the Notes or assets held by you. I have not relied on Lehman Bros in assessing the merits, risks and suitability of purchasing the Notes and that I have conducted my suitability checks and procedures for the subscription of the Notes"
Hence could I seek your clarification & interpretation that my minibond (series 7&8) sold by HLF in this instance have nothing to do with Lehman and that it should not be effected by this crisis? Thank you; October 08, 2008 11:37 PM
Anonymous said...: 5.49PM,
wait then you know who is the smelly leg.You sure kenna. From your writing I can guess you are a FA who sold toxic products to old and helpless people. Retribution is awaiting you.; October 09, 2008 12:37 AM
Anonymous said...: Mr Tan,

My strongest appreciation to you and your team for helping the misled investors.; October 09, 2008 10:09 AM
Anonymous said...: anon 11:37PM

Sorry my friend, that first sentence "I acknowledge that investments in the Notes are not deposits with..." is a declaration statement. Simply put, you have read and understood that the investment was not "Deposits".

Now, one thing you can do and Kim Lian may be able to help you is for you to prove (with evidence ~ any kind of evidence, witness, email...etc) that you were mis-lead and was that your financial advisor (whoever sold you this) did not explain or read that statement for you make sound decision and acknowledge. A tall-task indeed, but not impossible.; October 09, 2008 12:04 PM
Anonymous said...: Disclaimer: My family and myself is not affected by the recent Structured Deposit saga. But I feel i would like to share what i hear from my mum how the bank is promoting the structured deposit products.

I ask my mum about how the bank staff is promoting the product and why is it so convincing.

The bank staff would say, "How could the bank collapse. It is impossible."

This is an irony and indeed now banks are falling apart.

Would like the bank to revise their way of selling and persuasion to the customer of their product.

Do not say what you cannot predict. State all the possibilities so as to give a fair statement.

"How can a bank collapse?" Well, it happened and not once and now again.; October 09, 2008 2:55 PM
Anonymous said...: Dear Mr Tan Kin Lian,
Thank you very much for championing the cause for many mis-led investors like myself, who had been sold structured deposits (SD) by bank Relationship Managers (RM)who only highlight the benefits but NOT the risks associated with these SDs. Only AFTER we have signed the purchase agreements, then the RMs do the customer risk profile with us. I am a retiree, 62 years old, and had unfortunitely bought DBS High Notes 9 and 10, StanChart's Pinnacle's Note 15, ABN-AMRO's (now RBS)Jubilee Note 8, Maybank's Alpha A, and OCBC's Equity-Linked 3-yr SD. The RMs who sold me these SDs between May08 and Aug2008informed me that if I hold the SDs to maturity, I will surely get my Capital back, although the interests may vary. To-date, these RMs assure me that my SDs are still not risky. But when I requested them to let me just take back my Capital and put in normal Fixed (Time) Deposits (FD) and to forego any interests, they all said not possible.
2. I was not able to logon to your original website to be a petitioner because of an error in the Today newspaper that carried your website. But by now the website is closed to new signatures.
3. I certainly support your good work, and hope that by banding together, we can get some positive results from the Authorities.
with Best regards...from..
David Chan SY; October 09, 2008 5:37 PM
Anonymous said...: Thank you for your kind efforts.

By the way Mr Tan,you have not replied to one of your fan asking you TO RECONSIDER taking part in the next election for the Presidency of Singapore.

Another Fan; October 09, 2008 9:46 PM
Anonymous said...: Well done. Appreciate your blog and contribution to socierty; October 10, 2008 6:34 AM
Anonymous said...: Thanks for your effort and time taken to champion for goondu investors like me....

May all the good wishes goes to you.; October 10, 2008 11:47 AM
Anonymous said...: Without people taking their power to strike on the street with fear and KS-ism. We need representative to step forward with a law bidding method to submit a request to the gahmen to get their attention to do something for the citizens of Singapore. I respect you Mr. Tan, salute!; October 10, 2008 12:24 PM
Anonymous said...: born here

We need more people like you, Mr Tan, who care to speak up for Singaporeans.My salute to you! If only we have more good souls in our ....; October 10, 2008 6:12 PM
Anonymous said...: I have invested in Pinnacle Note 7 and was told just days ago by my RM that this investment has suffered over 90% losses! Whilst, there was many reports regarding High Note 5, Mini Bonds etc, there was hardly any information about this Note, publicly. Obviously, I have asked the bank for more details about this Note and indeed waited for more than a week so far but 'nobody' seems to know anything! Does any one out there has the knowledge pertaining to this structured product? Or where could I turn to for assistance?; October 13, 2008 1:21 AM
Anonymous said...: You know Kin Lian. The funny thing is before this whole economy was turned upside down AIG and what-have-you, I received an sms informing me that I will be asked 4 questions soon (I invested some of my CPF):
WHO IS YOUR ACCOUNT ADVISOR?
WHEN DID YOU SIGN UP FOR AN ACCOUNT?
DID THE SENIOR MANAGER CALL YOU EVERYTIME AFTER YOU CHOSE THE FUNDS ONLINE?
WERE YOU GIVEN ANY CASH AS COMPENSATION?

But no one called me. Which leads me to think they are doing something but WHAT and HOW, I have no idea!

I am however, appalled that in the end, we realise how highflying relationship managers sell to potential investors without giving full facts. SOMEONE (or people) has/have to pay the price, don't you think?

The good news is, DBS said they will look into it. Sure, SPM runs the corp in the background. I am not suprised the same good has been said for other banks.; October 17, 2008 3:32 AM
Anonymous said...: The petition is a good start to prompt the banks into action, keep it up.

There are many opportunistic "investors" who want to make use of this emotionally charged situation to try to gain something out of their existing investment with the banks, even though they are not affected. This is a good time to whack the banks.

Next time when buying a financial instrument, I hope the banks don't ask investors to copy and write out an entire paragraphs and statements to indicate that investor know what was discussed and understood the risk involved.

If really like that, then cannot find any excuses to push all the blame to banks that they mis-sell and that investors don't know what they signed - except if investor claim that under the influence of sweet-looking china meimei in short-skirts ... btw, using attractive girls to lure investors, does it count as "misleading"?; October 18, 2008 2:53 AM