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<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Has the people's bank grown into an elephant that can't dance?
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I HAD a Housing Board flat mortgage loan with POSB at a rate of 4 per cent. After the lock-in period, I asked for refinancing.
This process has proven frustrating and disappointing.
First, to call the home loan department, one has to endure a long wait, and it is the same every time one calls.
After getting through, it was a challenge to get the loan officer to send an e-mail message on what was discussed as she felt what she had explained was 'pretty simple'. That is the standard of service for an existing customer.
I was quoted 3.75 per cent for the first year. This was not a competitive rate so I asked the officer to work on a Sibor rate instead. Days later, I was quoted a rate of Sibor + 2 per cent.
I wrote to the head of consumer banking, Mr Rajan Raju, asking why the rates were so uncompetitive. He said this rate was better than my prevailing rate, which was irrelevant as the comparison should be with the current market rate.
When I checked three weeks ago, savings deposit rates were 0.175 per cent/0.2 per cent. A 2 per cent spread seems an extremely high and unfair margin. The home loan rates available in the market were about 1.6 per cent for the first year or Sibor + 0.8 per cent.
Offering such uncompetitive rates will push customers to other banks. Has the people's bank grown so big, it has become an elephant that cannot dance? Perhaps it needs a reality check.
As a shareholder, I am concerned that DBS will lose its market competitiveness. Eileen Ng (Ms)
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I HAD a Housing Board flat mortgage loan with POSB at a rate of 4 per cent. After the lock-in period, I asked for refinancing.
This process has proven frustrating and disappointing.
First, to call the home loan department, one has to endure a long wait, and it is the same every time one calls.
After getting through, it was a challenge to get the loan officer to send an e-mail message on what was discussed as she felt what she had explained was 'pretty simple'. That is the standard of service for an existing customer.
I was quoted 3.75 per cent for the first year. This was not a competitive rate so I asked the officer to work on a Sibor rate instead. Days later, I was quoted a rate of Sibor + 2 per cent.
I wrote to the head of consumer banking, Mr Rajan Raju, asking why the rates were so uncompetitive. He said this rate was better than my prevailing rate, which was irrelevant as the comparison should be with the current market rate.
When I checked three weeks ago, savings deposit rates were 0.175 per cent/0.2 per cent. A 2 per cent spread seems an extremely high and unfair margin. The home loan rates available in the market were about 1.6 per cent for the first year or Sibor + 0.8 per cent.
Offering such uncompetitive rates will push customers to other banks. Has the people's bank grown so big, it has become an elephant that cannot dance? Perhaps it needs a reality check.
As a shareholder, I am concerned that DBS will lose its market competitiveness. Eileen Ng (Ms)
