Friday, September 19, 2008

Call to MAS to take pro-active action

Two months ago, the New York State Attorney took action against several financial institutions for marketing the "auction rate securities" to retail investors on the representation that they are liquid investments and can be redeemed at any time. The financial institions had to buy back these securities at no loss to the investors.

I hope that the Monetary Authority of Singapore or the Attorney General can take similar action on behalf of retail investors who had been misled into investing in the Mini-Bonds and similar structured products by their bank's relationship managers in the belief that these investments are safe.

It is time to hold the financial institutions accountable for their mis-selling activities and for our regulators to be pro-active.