Speaker's Corner, 27 Dec 2008 - Speech

Speaker’s Corner 27 Dec 2008

1. Meetings at Hong Lim Park
The first meeting for investors of the credit linked notes was held on 11 October 2008. This was followed by another 9 meetings. The first 8 meetings were held at weekly intervals while the last two meeting was held at fortnightly intervals. Today’s meeting is the 10th and final meeting to be held at Hong Lim Park for the credit linked notes.

You may wonder why Hong Lim Park was chosen to be the venue for the meeting. The most important reason is that it is free and is available at any time. However, it is not quite convenient, due to the lack of facilities. There is no sound system and everyone had to stand. On a few occasions, we had to share the use of the park with other activities. It rained on one meeting.

Still, it is a wonderful experience for us to meet at Hong Lim Park and to get to know each other.

2. Petitions
During the past three months, a total of four petitions sent organised, of which three petitions were presented to the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

The first petition dated 10 October and signed by 983 people, asked the Government to look into any possible wrong doings by the financial institutions that created and marketed the credit linked notes.

The second petition dated 17 October and signed by 277 people, asked the MAS to investigate the sales training given by the financial institutions to their representatives who sold the credit linked notes.

The fourth petition dated 31 October and signed by 1,073 people, asked the MAS to review the complaint handling process of the financial institutions, to set up an independent unit to receive the complaints and to encourage the financial institutions to adopt a collective approach in offering fair compensation to the investors.

These petitions were presented to the chairman and executive director of MAS and were acknowledged. My requests to meet with the chairman or senior management of MAS were declined. I received replies that any development would be communicated to the public through media releases.

Up to now, we have not received any communication on whether the specific requests contained in the petitions had been considered or implemented.

3. Complaint Handling Process
We have received reports that about 5,000 complaints had been received by the financial institutions that sold the credit linked notes. The MAS had issued a statement that the complaint handling processes of these institutions had generally met their expected standard.

We have not been provided with information on the number of people that have received full or partial compensation for the alleged mis-selling of the product. A small number of the so-called vulnerable investors had been compensated. Although the actual number is not disclosed, this is estimated to account for less than 2 percent of the investors.

The perception of the investors is quite different from the MAS. Many investors found the complaint handling process to be carried out in an unfair and unsatisfactory manner.

The anecdotal reports from any investors are that their complaints of alleged mis-selling were rejected by the financial institutions.

MAS had required the financial institutions to give their decision on each complaint within four weeks. This deadline appeared to have been not met. There are many reports from investors that they had not received any decision after six weeks or longer.

The next step for the investors is to lodge a complaint with the dispute resolution center, called FIDREC. From our survey, a small number of investors had taken this second step to lodge their complaints. Most of the investors intend to take this second step, but the process has been extremely slow and difficult.

4. Collective legal action
Many investors had indicated that they will join in a collective legal action against the financial institutions. It will be correct for me to say, on their behalf, they had taken this decision with great reluctance and difficulty. They would have preferred a more amicable way to get fair compensation for their financial loss.

I like to ask the investors to join the different groups representing the different types of credit linked notes, namely the Minibonds, High Notes, Jubilee Notes and the Pinnacle Notes.

The leaders of these groups will be holding separate meetings next year for the investors. As each group is smaller, it is easier to arrange a more conducive place to hold an indoor meeting.

Each investor group is also setting up a website and an e-mail list to communicate with their members. The key activities of these groups are to educate their members, provide assistance and advice, and to organise the collective legal action.

I shall be in touch with the leaders of these groups and to co-ordinate the activities of the various groups, if required.

5. My blog
I will continue to keep all investors updated through my blog, www.tankinlian.blogspot.com.

I wish to thank a few volunteers who had been providing me with daily updates of news and articles from other sources. I have put the relevant articles in my blog. I encourage the investors to the postings in my blog to keep in touch with the developments.

6. Conclusion
I am sorry that there was little progress in getting fair compensation for your financial losses, in spite of the great efforts that were put in by many people. We have tried many different approaches, but keep hitting a stone wall – even tough we keep our eyes “wide open”.

During the past three months, we have made many friends from among the investors and volunteers. Let us continue our friendship and continue our efforts to seek fair compensation for the investors, although the future efforts will be done outside of Hong Lim Park.

Let me wish all of you, all the best for 2009.

Tan Kin Lian

Survey - based on 25 responses

I studied many years ago, that an unbiased survey based on 25 replies give quite reliable results.

I now have the chance of seeing this theory put into action. I have analyzed the survey results based on2 5 replies, and compare the results with 50 and 100 replies. The results given are quite close. It means that the results based on the first 25 replies are quite reliable.

I shall be showing the results for 25, 50 and 100 replies to various surveys here, if the survey did reach 100 replies.

Seminar for Minibond Investors

A seminar, titled " Minibond Victims: The Way Forward In 2009 " will be held soon. The details are:
   
                                      Date:  Tuesday 30th December 2008
                                      Time: 7 to 9 .30 pm (registration starts at 6 pm )
                                      Venue: Singapore Polytechnic Graduates Guild House
                                                      1010 Dover Road Singapore 139658
                                      Admission: Free (Register online here)
                                       (Click here for a map to locate the SP Guild House ) 

The agenda for the evening:

                                        - Welcome 
                                        - Introduction (Mr Tan Kin Lian)
                                        - The Way Forward: The Plans For 2009 
                                        - The National Minibond Data Collection Exercise 
                                        - The Start Of Legal Efforts: Leonard Loo
                                        - Q & A

Don't miss this important seminar as the legal efforts to protect the interests of Minibond customers get into full swing! Mr. Loo has confirmed that he will have a Senior Counsel (SC) on board his legal team so come down and listen to his deliberations. 

Register early for the free seminar  as there are only 250 seats !(please ensure you have registered with the Minibond Group before you participate in the seminar).

Thought for the day - the world is a dangerous place

Contributed by Ho Cheow Seng

"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." -- Albert Einstein

 

The fallen giants of finance

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b2247e62-d02f-11dd-ae00-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

By Fang Wang, Steven Bernard, Joanna Chung, Saskia Scholtes, Greg Farrell and Francesco Guerrera
Published: December 22 2008 19:21 | Last updated: December 24 2008 18:10

The search for scapegoats in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression is under way. As one financial group after another has collapsed, wiping out thousands of billions worth of value for investors, a plethora of investigations by prosecutors and regulators has been launched.

Federal officials have opened investigations into at least 25 large companies, including Lehman Brothers, the collapsed investment bank; Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage financiers taken over by the government; and Washington Mutual, the biggest bank to go under in US history.

Investment banking league table 2008 - Dec-22

Subpoenas have been handed down in some cases, including Lehman and Fannie and Freddie. Prosecutors, along with officials at the Securities and Exchange Commission, are trying to determine whether managers misled the public about the financial condition of their companies. Defence attorneys are likely to argue that companies, as well as their individual directors and executives, cannot be blamed for the unprecedented market turmoil. “One thing we know for certain is that stupid choices were made by hundreds of businessmen but that is not a crime. Some executives may have been overly optimistic but so were a lot of people,” said Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor in New York’s southern district and now a Columbia University professor.

The subjects of these profiles, or their spokespeople, were contacted for this article but declined to comment. Compensation includes cashed-in share options.

Attention: Pinnacle Note Investors

THE PRO TEM COMMITTEE OF THE PINNACLE ACTION GROUP WISH TO MEET ALL PINNACLE NOTES HOLDERS THIS SAT 5PM AT HONG LIM PARK.

 

WE WISH TO SEEK YOUR SUPPORTS TO EXPLORE ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO SEEK RELIEF FOR LOSES

INCURRED BY THIS FAILED PRODUCT.

 

THE CO-OPERATION AND UNDERSTANDING OF ALL INVESTORS CONCERNED WOULD BE MOST APPRECIATED.

 

FOR THOSE WHO ARE UNABLE TO ATTEND, KINDLY EMAIL YOUR PARTICULARS (NAME, NRIC, EMAIL ADDRESS, AND TELEPHONE) TO:-

 

pinnacle.action.group@gmail.com

 

Chan JC

Meeting at Speaker's Corner, Sat 27 Dec, 5 pm

A meeting of investors of the credit linked notes will be held as follows:

Date: Saturday 27 December 2008
Time: 5 to 7 pm
Place: Speaker's Corner, Hong Lim Park

Agenda
1. Update of complaints to financial institution, FIDREC
2. Update on collective legal action
3. Speech by lawyer organising the class action

This will be the last meeting to be held at Speaker's Corner. Subsequent meetings will be organised by the group leaders for the various notes, and will be held at other venues.

Please turn up for this last meeting.