For years, two relationship managers assured a client that his investment portfolio was doing well and that he had a balance of around $8 million in his account. In fact, the net value of the investment account stood at only $252,652 on Aug 12 this year.
The rest had been frittered away by the relationship managers at Societe Generale Bank & Trust in Singapore because of alleged unauthorised forex trades, according to a lawsuit filed at the Singapore High Court yesterday. To cover up the losses, they fed the client with bogus statements, the lawsuit claimed.
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http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/news/story/0,4574,408394,00.html?
Private bankers are also salesmen like the insurance agents. What do they know about investment or insurance?
ReplyDeleteThese people are also given many titles from RMs to Personal bankers to Private bankers. ONly difference is the designation and they are all salesmen.
In insurance companies the salesmen are also given fancifool titles to fool the consumers. Titles like Financial consultants, senior and the high producers are given Executive Financial Consultants title to con the public that they are financial experts.The truth is they are very far from being an expert. They are product salesmen in disguise at best and at worse conmen and women.
MAS must regulate them tightly.
Sorry but absolutely no sympathy to the rich getting scammed by their private bankers. Firstly, they enjoy the ego boosting engagements (golf outings, high class seminars only for them, wine tasting sessions); secondly, they do not have to rish their money for more in the first place.
ReplyDeleteSurprising that this is still a private suit between the customer and the private bankers. In Singapore, it is really a you die your business society.
ReplyDeleteIn other developed countries, if you complained to the authorities and show the bogus statements, their govt agencies will be the one to charge not only the private bankers, but also the bank itself for all kinds of criminal charges --- fraud, cheating, misrepresentation, forgery, illegal trading, not fulfilling fiduciary duties etc. Those 2 bankers and their immediate manager would probably be waiting in jail, or at least forced to pay huge bail amounts.
No wonder so many western banks and finance companies love to setup shop in Singapore. Many are simply just fly-by-night operations with ang moh sounding names.
Just check out MAS Watch List --- filled with so many of these type of firms. How many of the perpetrators have been successfully charged in court and jailed? 99.99% of them simply fly overseas with the investors' money at the first hint of trouble. E.g. what happened to the so-called directors of an infamous land-banking company which is being investigated by MAS?
It's no wonder that rich people try to put more money into tangible assets like properties (no matter how overpriced they are).
ReplyDeleteYou have control over the property and there is no way of faking the rental income to you monthly :)
I'm talking about properties I purchased on the market , not those 8% guaranteed returns type you can't see from overseas.
ReplyDelete