The regulator in USA look after the interest of consumers. I hope that the regulator in Singapore can follow the same example. Tan Kin Lian
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/business/12auctions.html?ref=business
December 12, 2008
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two banking giants, Citigroup and UBS, agreed on Thursday to buy back nearly $30 billion in risky auction-rate securities that regulators said the banks had marketed to customers as safe.
The Securities and Exchange Commission formally approved the settlements with the two banks after preliminary deals that were reached in August.
Securities regulators in Texas and New York also announced details of final agreements with the banks.
Tens of thousands of the banks’ customers bought the auction-rate securities before the $330 billion market for them froze in mid-February, the S.E.C. said in announcing the final accords.
The new settlements were the largest return of customer money in the agency’s history and all the investors will be made whole, the chairman of the S.E.C., Christopher Cox, said in a statement.
Citigroup and UBS of Switzerland neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing under the settlements.
Citigroup agreed to buy back about $7 billion in the securities from affected customers, while UBS’s repurchase totaled $22.7 billion.
The settlements require federal court approval. The banks agreed to refrain from future violations of securities laws.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Who should be retrenched first?
Discussion in The Online Citizen
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/12/who-to-retrench-first-pm-vs-labour-chief/#comment-39428
Here are my views about who should be retrenched first - locals or foreign workers?
My answer is: retrenchment should be avoided. If demand drops by 20%, all workers should work 4 days (instead of 5 days) and take a 20% wage cut. The workers who are able to find alternative work elsewhere can resign. This allows the other workers to work more than 4 days and get additional income for the additional work.
How can the worker cope with a 20% cut in wages? They can draw down on past savings. I suggest a new scheme - to allow them to get a relief loan (for the drop in earnings) at a a modest rate (say 2.5% p.a.) for a period of 12 or 24 months. Such a scheme should be set up by the Governmetn as part of a social safety net. This is important in Singapore, in lieu of unemployment insurance.
We should treat our foriegn workers fairly. Many of them take big loans to come to work in Singpaore. We cannot send them back prematurely on an economic downturn.
In the future, we should plan the use of foreign workers carefully. It is better to have long term migrants into Singapore, if we need to increase our manpower and size of the economy.
Tan Kin Lian
Poll: How should a company cope with falling demand in a recession?
Number of replies: 95
Retrench local workers: 5%
Retrench foreign workers: 40%
Reduce the days worked and wages proportionately: 54%
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/12/who-to-retrench-first-pm-vs-labour-chief/#comment-39428
Here are my views about who should be retrenched first - locals or foreign workers?
My answer is: retrenchment should be avoided. If demand drops by 20%, all workers should work 4 days (instead of 5 days) and take a 20% wage cut. The workers who are able to find alternative work elsewhere can resign. This allows the other workers to work more than 4 days and get additional income for the additional work.
How can the worker cope with a 20% cut in wages? They can draw down on past savings. I suggest a new scheme - to allow them to get a relief loan (for the drop in earnings) at a a modest rate (say 2.5% p.a.) for a period of 12 or 24 months. Such a scheme should be set up by the Governmetn as part of a social safety net. This is important in Singapore, in lieu of unemployment insurance.
We should treat our foriegn workers fairly. Many of them take big loans to come to work in Singpaore. We cannot send them back prematurely on an economic downturn.
In the future, we should plan the use of foreign workers carefully. It is better to have long term migrants into Singapore, if we need to increase our manpower and size of the economy.
Tan Kin Lian
Poll: How should a company cope with falling demand in a recession?
Number of replies: 95
Retrench local workers: 5%
Retrench foreign workers: 40%
Reduce the days worked and wages proportionately: 54%
A broad based approach towards re-training
Some people argued that re-training should be matched against job opportunity. I am in favour of a more broad-based approach.
In a recession, companies are cutting down jobs. There are few job opportunities to match the re-training.
I suggest that the retrenched workers should be allowed to attend training courses that will upgrade their educational level, such as language, mathematics, customer service and IT skills. These skills will be useful in most jobs.
Many of the older workers have low education. It will be a good time to let them catch up on these shortcomings. They can receive a training attendance allowance. It will also create jobs for other people to be instructors.
In many advanced countries, the retrenched workers receive an unemployment benefit without having to attend training. If we do not wish to give this benefit so easily, we can require them to attend re-training, but a more flexible, broad based approach can be adopted. Let them be trained on the skills that are most useful, and not necessarily be tied to a specific job opporunity.
Poll: What type of training courses should a retrench worker attend, to receive a training allowance
Number of replies: 106
A training course tied to a specific job: 17%
Any useful training, including upgrading of education and general skills: 63%
They should receive an unemploymenet benefit that is not tied to training: 16%
No training allowance or unemployment benefit: 2%
In a recession, companies are cutting down jobs. There are few job opportunities to match the re-training.
I suggest that the retrenched workers should be allowed to attend training courses that will upgrade their educational level, such as language, mathematics, customer service and IT skills. These skills will be useful in most jobs.
Many of the older workers have low education. It will be a good time to let them catch up on these shortcomings. They can receive a training attendance allowance. It will also create jobs for other people to be instructors.
In many advanced countries, the retrenched workers receive an unemployment benefit without having to attend training. If we do not wish to give this benefit so easily, we can require them to attend re-training, but a more flexible, broad based approach can be adopted. Let them be trained on the skills that are most useful, and not necessarily be tied to a specific job opporunity.
Poll: What type of training courses should a retrench worker attend, to receive a training allowance
Number of replies: 106
A training course tied to a specific job: 17%
Any useful training, including upgrading of education and general skills: 63%
They should receive an unemploymenet benefit that is not tied to training: 16%
No training allowance or unemployment benefit: 2%
Hong Kong banks repay 30 million HK dollars in mini-bond scandal
HONG KONG (AFP) — Hong Kong banks have paid back 30 million Hong Kong dollars (3.9 million US) to investors who said they were missold financial products backed by failed US giant Lehman Brothers, a lawmaker said Wednesday.
About 60 people have so far received compensation from the banks, Democratic Party legislator and lawyer Albert Ho said, in the scandal that has led to protests across the Asian financial hub.
But Ho lamented that the settled cases represented fewer than one percent of the 7,000 cases the party has been handling.
"After more than two months' effort, we have successfully pressured the banks to settle about 60 cases through mediation, allowing the victims to get back the money they earned with their blood and sweat," Ho told AFP.
He added that the investors had managed to get a full refund in some of the cases, but refused to give a breakdown.
"However, this number is very small. Many times, we had to threaten them with lawyers' letters before the banks agreed to settle," he said.
More than 40,000 Hong Kong investors -- including many retirees -- had put a total of 15.7 billion Hong Kong dollars of their savings into mini-bonds and other complex products backed by the investment bank.
Former Wall Street icon Lehman Brothers collapsed in September under mountains of debt, making many of the investments completely worthless.
Ho said other cases may have to use the courts to find a settlement. He added a group of US lawyers will fly to Hong Kong later this month to discuss a proposal for a cross-country lawsuit against the US institutions involved in the handling of the Lehman-backed products.
Meanwhile, two Singaporean residents have become the first to launch a lawsuit in Hong Kong's High Court over the mini-bonds saga, The Standard newspaper reported Wednesday.
In a writ filed on Tuesday, Stephen Tou and Wong Fung-chun sought 9.83 million Hong Kong dollars in compensation from DBS Bank (Hong Kong).
They said they had put almost all their life savings into Lehman-backed structured notes after staff at the bank told them the investment was safe
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hZPW-eovXWUnTM9-gEdt5Ex1vsIw
About 60 people have so far received compensation from the banks, Democratic Party legislator and lawyer Albert Ho said, in the scandal that has led to protests across the Asian financial hub.
But Ho lamented that the settled cases represented fewer than one percent of the 7,000 cases the party has been handling.
"After more than two months' effort, we have successfully pressured the banks to settle about 60 cases through mediation, allowing the victims to get back the money they earned with their blood and sweat," Ho told AFP.
He added that the investors had managed to get a full refund in some of the cases, but refused to give a breakdown.
"However, this number is very small. Many times, we had to threaten them with lawyers' letters before the banks agreed to settle," he said.
More than 40,000 Hong Kong investors -- including many retirees -- had put a total of 15.7 billion Hong Kong dollars of their savings into mini-bonds and other complex products backed by the investment bank.
Former Wall Street icon Lehman Brothers collapsed in September under mountains of debt, making many of the investments completely worthless.
Ho said other cases may have to use the courts to find a settlement. He added a group of US lawyers will fly to Hong Kong later this month to discuss a proposal for a cross-country lawsuit against the US institutions involved in the handling of the Lehman-backed products.
Meanwhile, two Singaporean residents have become the first to launch a lawsuit in Hong Kong's High Court over the mini-bonds saga, The Standard newspaper reported Wednesday.
In a writ filed on Tuesday, Stephen Tou and Wong Fung-chun sought 9.83 million Hong Kong dollars in compensation from DBS Bank (Hong Kong).
They said they had put almost all their life savings into Lehman-backed structured notes after staff at the bank told them the investment was safe
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hZPW-eovXWUnTM9-gEdt5Ex1vsIw
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