HONG KONG: Hong Kong banks that sold minibonds linked to now-bankrupt Lehman Brothers have agreed to repay tens of thousands of investors up to 96.5 per cent of their investment, regulators said Sunday.
The 16 banks will buy back a large chunk of the financial products at the centre of a major scandal in Hong Kong, after they were sold to more than 40,000 investors before their value tanked when the US bank went bankrupt in 2008.
Investors ploughed a total of HK$15.7 billion ($2 billion) of their savings into minibonds and other complex products backed by Lehman Brothers.
Welcoming the deal the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and Hong Kong Monetary Authority said the agreement "will provide substantial recoveries for all customers" holding the products.
"This outcome would have been seen as impossible in the months following the collapse of Lehman and demonstrates the value of good regulators responding efficiently and robustly when things go wrong," SFC chief executive Martin Wheatley said in a statement.
The HKMA said investors would recover 85 to 96.5 per cent of their initial investment, up from 60 to 70 per cent in an earlier agreement.
The deal must first be approved by at least 75 per cent of noteholders at meetings expected to be held in May, receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a statement on its website.
The move should draw a line under a saga over compensation for the thousands of investors -- many of them retirees -- who bought the minibonds on the understanding their money was safe.
Investors accused the banks of misselling the complex products, sparking a protracted tussle between customers, regulators and the banks over the minibonds buyback.
The 16 banks include Bank of China (Hong Kong), Bank of Communications Co. (Hong Kong) and the Bank of East Asia.
A spokesman for Hong Kong's government said: "The government is pleased with the high rate of recovery in the value of the Minibond collateral."
Former Wall Street behemoth Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008 under mountains of debt, leaving investors reeling and sending shockwave across the global financial system.
-AFP/wk
The 16 banks will buy back a large chunk of the financial products at the centre of a major scandal in Hong Kong, after they were sold to more than 40,000 investors before their value tanked when the US bank went bankrupt in 2008.
Investors ploughed a total of HK$15.7 billion ($2 billion) of their savings into minibonds and other complex products backed by Lehman Brothers.
Welcoming the deal the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and Hong Kong Monetary Authority said the agreement "will provide substantial recoveries for all customers" holding the products.
"This outcome would have been seen as impossible in the months following the collapse of Lehman and demonstrates the value of good regulators responding efficiently and robustly when things go wrong," SFC chief executive Martin Wheatley said in a statement.
The HKMA said investors would recover 85 to 96.5 per cent of their initial investment, up from 60 to 70 per cent in an earlier agreement.
The deal must first be approved by at least 75 per cent of noteholders at meetings expected to be held in May, receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a statement on its website.
The move should draw a line under a saga over compensation for the thousands of investors -- many of them retirees -- who bought the minibonds on the understanding their money was safe.
Investors accused the banks of misselling the complex products, sparking a protracted tussle between customers, regulators and the banks over the minibonds buyback.
The 16 banks include Bank of China (Hong Kong), Bank of Communications Co. (Hong Kong) and the Bank of East Asia.
A spokesman for Hong Kong's government said: "The government is pleased with the high rate of recovery in the value of the Minibond collateral."
Former Wall Street behemoth Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008 under mountains of debt, leaving investors reeling and sending shockwave across the global financial system.
-AFP/wk
