There is one financial institution that I respect. Its behavior is in stark contract to the deplorable behavior of most other financial institutions in Singapore.
Like many other banks, finance companies and stock brokers, they sold the Pinnacle Notes to their clients. The Pinnacle Notes went bust, resulting in a 100% loss of investment for their retail investors.
When this financial institution learned that the issuer had probably acted fraudulently in creating the Pinnacle Notes, it decided to compensate the investors for a large percentage of their investment. After making this payment, the financial institution took legal action to sue the issuer for the amount that they had paid to their investors.
Instead of letting the investors take legal action on their own, and that would be difficult for retail investors, this financial institution took the risk on behalf of their customers.
What is the name of this honorable financial institution?
It is Hong Leong Finance. It is the only financial institution that gained my full respect.
CONTRAST
In contrast, the bank that ranked at the bottom of my list is DBS Bank. They created the High Notes which caused total loss of the investments of their privileged customers. The High Notes were badly created and were badly sold by their relationship managers.
After the High Notes went bust, DBS Bank found various ways to avoid responsibility and only compensated a small group of "vulnerable" customers. Their behavior stinks to this day.
Like many other banks, finance companies and stock brokers, they sold the Pinnacle Notes to their clients. The Pinnacle Notes went bust, resulting in a 100% loss of investment for their retail investors.
When this financial institution learned that the issuer had probably acted fraudulently in creating the Pinnacle Notes, it decided to compensate the investors for a large percentage of their investment. After making this payment, the financial institution took legal action to sue the issuer for the amount that they had paid to their investors.
Instead of letting the investors take legal action on their own, and that would be difficult for retail investors, this financial institution took the risk on behalf of their customers.
What is the name of this honorable financial institution?
It is Hong Leong Finance. It is the only financial institution that gained my full respect.
CONTRAST
In contrast, the bank that ranked at the bottom of my list is DBS Bank. They created the High Notes which caused total loss of the investments of their privileged customers. The High Notes were badly created and were badly sold by their relationship managers.
After the High Notes went bust, DBS Bank found various ways to avoid responsibility and only compensated a small group of "vulnerable" customers. Their behavior stinks to this day.
Now that the US District Court of New York had approved the distribution of the Pinnacle Notes settlement fund paid under the class action and the retail investors who had joined the Class Action earlier had by now received a payment from the Claims Administrator Ge Dandong, Hong Leong Finance is requesting the retail investors to hand over the cheque which they have received from the Claims Administrator in its original form in pursuant to Clause 3 of the Settlement Agreement dated 01 Mar 2011.
ReplyDeleteDo you think it is fair for Hong Leong Finance to request money back from the "compensated" retail investors now when Hong Leong Finance had taken legal action on its own against the issuer in a similar law suit?