Look at the Product Advice

Hi Mr Tan,
I am one of the investors in Minibond. I would like to share with the rest of the investors on what I have found out in the Product Advise Report.

In my Product Advice Report, under the section Recommendations and Acknowledgement, it was written that I want to invest in bonds (which was what I said to the Financial Planner) but the Financial Planner recommended minibond to me which invest in CDOs. As I bought 3 series of Minibond from 3 different financial planners, all told me that I was investing in bonds issued by the corporations listed in the brochures. I have since written my complaint to the distributor, FIDReC, one of the three well-respected individuals to oversee the relevant FIs’ complaints, my MP and HSBC Trustee.

Maybe, you can advise those investors who bought these structured products to take a look at the Product Advice Report and see whether there was any evidence of misrepresentation by the financial planners.

On a separate note, I noticed that the prospectus was only given to investors weeks (at least 3 weeks) after investors have bought the structured notes. Is this the correct and acceptable practice by MAS? Shouldn't the financial institutions give out the prospectus (like the case in IPOs although I know not many people read them) before investors invest in these structured products since MAS already approved their products and prospectus?

KK

REPLY
It is wrong for the financial institution to give the prospectus a few weeks after the product was sold. You can mention this point in the statutory declaration (affidavit).