Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Rejection from FIDREC

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Rejection from FIDREC

Every few days, I get an email from a credit note investor who asked for my advice and help, after receiving a rejection letter from FIDREC.

Earlier on, there were many opportunities for the investor to get in touch with other investors, to get legal help, to join the class action, to sign the Petition and to attend the Hong Lim gathering. Many of these investors prefer not to be engaged in these activities.

Now, after receiving a rejection letter, they turn to me for help. I am not able to help them at this late stage. There is nothing that can be done now.

I had spent a lot of effort to organise the Petition and the Hong Lim Gathering. I had posted many updates in my blog. I also sent an email to remind the 700 signatories about the Gathering. Only 300 people turned up, which was below expectation and insufficient to create the impact.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...: Mr. Tan, you are not obliged to help these people. They are too clever people, the savvy ones. Don't waste your time on them. You regret; September 02, 2009 10:31 PM
Anonymous said...: Mr TKL has done all the ground works for you people. If you still want free rides eg getting free legal consultation, free TKL's advice, free QC report, to be first included in legal fight, take the money first if you win, too afraid to turn up at Hong Ling Park, you deserve to be swallowed by the FI's.; September 03, 2009 12:09 AM
Anonymous said...: Mr. Tan

You should spend your time helping those old and uneducated uncle/aunties rather than those who are educated and know how to write email to you.

PS: One explanation of the low turnout maybe due to the fact that most of these people do not have access to the internet, thus does not know your effort.; September 03, 2009 12:10 AM
A Tan said...: I(f you willing to spend time trying to help those old amd uneducated uncles/ aunties, I am willing to help again. And am sure can find others.

It will not be easy and we will have to be creative.; September 03, 2009 5:06 AM
Anonymous said...: I know of investors who are aware of the many avenues to approach but instead remains passive. If they seriously still want to be involved they can still get in torch with some active investors as there is still a small window opening left for them to jump in.; September 03, 2009 8:21 AM
Anonymous said...: For investors to get the compensation, they need the support from the general public. But my personal experiences are that most people (including my relatives and “friends”) are having negative opinions towards the investors such as:

1) Who ask them to invest blindly into a product which they don’t understand? (i.e. the investors are irresponsible).
2) The fixed deposit is about 1.5% in 2007 and you get 5% from minibond. You should have known better. So high differential. Still claims risk?
3) In good times, the minibond investors collected their quarterly payout and kept quiet. Now they got burned, they want the government to bail them out ?
4) The minibond prospectus did highlighted the risk of losing everything (i.e. it is not risk free) yet minibond holders still claim that they do not know the risk
5) The government cannot guarantee that all investment are risk free ( it is understandable) therefore investors cannot expect the government to bail them out.
6) Who would expect Lehman brothers to go bankrupt? i.e. the risk is low at the time of selling, therefore investors cannot claim that it is a toxic product. It is unfortunate that Lehman brothers did fail, so it is a bad investment, you have to take the responsibility and accept the consequences.
7) It is greed that drives the investors to invest in minibond.
…………

Unless the above misconceptions have been publicly refuted (in the press or on TV), the general public will not change their negative perception toward the minibond investors and the government can afford to continue ignores our petitions.

Investors should form a group and channel their effort into explaining/educating the general public about the real issues of this minibond saga and to win over the support from the general public.; September 03, 2009 9:31 AM
Anonymous said...: These people might initially think that MAS and FIDReC would give them the justice and fairness but the fact has turned up otherwise and hence are seeking assistance from Mr Tan.

This in fact is a good sign as more and more people have realised the reality of life in Singapore. They trust MAS, they trust the banks and finally they lost their hard-earned money.

I believe Mr Tan would still be glad to give assistance to them if he has the time

Richard Koh; September 03, 2009 12:10 PM
Anonymous said...: No use complaining to MAS, our authority have to side with all FIs and insurance companies.
Don't waste time. The problem in Singapore is whether the Courts are independent of political pressure, an important point that these victims have to consider. All processes thru FIDREC or MAS are only a false front where the authorties hide behind while pulling strings and giving instructions. So please don't put all the blame on these rejected people.; September 03, 2009 3:03 PM
A Singaporean said...: When I brought up the topic of Minibombs to some people, I get the same kind of responses as 9:31 am. To those people, I decided to shut up.

One of the biggest contributory factor to this mess is that inflation rate is so high while interest rate is so low. So people desperate for preserving value of their money, especially those who have no income (especially the elderly), are particularly attracted to the moderately high interest. It is understandable.; September 03, 2009 3:08 PM
Anonymous said...: As the saying goes, "God helps those who help themselves", those who do nothing and hope to take a free ride on others' actions now find themselves helpless. If everyone has come out to support all the actvities Mr Tan organized, we could have a huge voice to demand justice. Fellow Asian said S'porean fear everything and I do hope they are wrong.; September 03, 2009 9:01 PM
Anonymous said...: These people who only just realised how useless complaining to FIDREC is, they have fallen into the authorities trap. Now they may be too late to join class action.... this shall serve as an important lesson.....; September 04, 2009 12:27 PM