Tan Kin Lian's Blog: HK: Bank staff did not understand mini-bonds

Sunday, January 10, 2010

HK: Bank staff did not understand mini-bonds

According to this report, the Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong admitted that they found the bank staff did not understand the mini-bonds that they sold and that their risk assessment was superficial. The same situation applies in Singapore, except that we are not so honest in admitting our mistakes.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...: MR TAN.
"FI staff did not understand the structured products." This is not surprised to me. I think not even MAS staff has the guts to explain such products to the public over TV. Does everybody here thinks likewise?

CASHEW NUT.; January 10, 2010 9:55 PM
Anonymous said...: They are insisting on caveat emptor; open your eyes big big; attend MoneySense; now it is setting up an Institute to teach people about finance so that they can buy financial products with their eyes open.
If they really want caveat emptor then they should NOT have an intermedairy or middleman to screw up things.
Imagine i walk into a bank or financial product supermart where all the products are on display . The products come with prospectus, brochures and all the information.
I touch, read and then decide whether to buy or not. If I buy I will take responsibility and if I don't understand I walk away. Here I have no one to screw up the information, tell me lies, suppress material info and manipulate my emotion. If things go awry I have no one to blame except myself. Many old folks would not have bought the minibonds or any products they don't understand and would have escaped the debacles. But with the middle men like the RMs, the so called financial consultants or advisers it is doomed from the start becuase the folks will be 'persuaded', 'convinced',confused' and 'conned' and cheated' into buying.
If the regulator has the consumers interest in mind they should regulate the predatory insurance salesmen and RMs and make them do the right thing.; January 10, 2010 10:52 PM
Concerned said...: How many people knew that Minibond, Pinnacle Notes, etc are not a corporate bond, but high risk credit linked derivatives at the time of sale. If the consumers understand this, many people would not have bought into these screwed products. Saying that the details are all in the prospectus is a lame excuse and irresponsible, as most people bought the product based on the adverisement materials and the RM sales tactics. If the products have been sold directly from the issuer to the public, without intermeditary (the distributor), then many more people would not have bought those damned products, as they trust the distriubtors. FIs are good in packaging and they packaged high risked CDOs and CDS as corporate bonds.; January 11, 2010 10:10 AM
Anonymous said...: After all that has been discovered, it is frustrating that I bear all the losses while FI and authorities walked away free. They used fineprints to protect them legally, what justice is this?; January 11, 2010 1:38 PM
Anonymous said...: Why is it so difficult to admit mistake honestly???; January 11, 2010 6:02 PM
Anonymous said...: Answering "why is it so difficult to admit mistake honestly?" I have no answer. I share the same view that any people with sense of justice and conscience will admit that it is a mess.; January 11, 2010 7:45 PM
Anonymous said...: More victims in S'pore as more of these structured notes failed and the Authority hope people will accept their fate quietly.There is a lot of public anger simmering underneath and needs to be addressed and not hope it will go away. These are blood & sweat savings of innocent people.; January 11, 2010 8:46 PM
Anonymous said...: Delay & Delay & Delay & Dealy & Delay & Delay & think people will forget???; January 11, 2010 9:50 PM
Anonymous said...: On hind-sight, all 3 parties made mistakes of some sort or other: The Regulatory Authorities(MAS) for allowing the products (which are not what appear to be) to be registered & sold; the FIs following allowing its staff (who in the first instance does not understand the products)to take advantage of gullible customers; the customers who should have taken the warning:buyers beware! to heart & do more homework as their hard-earned savings are at stake. Hope that the positive of this episode is to guard against such castatrophe from happening again!!!!; January 11, 2010 10:06 PM