Rich clients allege foul play by Standard Chartered
The Economic Times
Sat, Apr 30, 2011 | Updated 07.26AM IST
30 Apr, 2011, 12.58AM IST, Nishanth Vasudevan,ET Bureau
Rich clients allege foul play by Standard Chartered
MUMBAI: Nearly three months after a rogue banker at Citi duped wealthy investors, some rich clients of another multinational lender, Standard Chartered, have alleged that they have been short-changed by the British bank.
Standard Chartered, the foreign bank with the largest presence in India, sold debt securities to private banking clients with a promise to buy them back, according to sources in the wealth management industry.
The products on offer included debentures of real estate firms and a Delhi-based education company. Investors were attracted by the buyback option-something not allowed under current regulations-and higher returns.
Around Rs 150-200 crore of such debentures were sold by Standard Chartered relationship managers to their private banking and wealth management clients, said two people in the wealth management industry.
In a response to an email query by ET, a Standard Chartered spokesperson acknowledged there was a problem, but described the estimates of Rs 150-200 crore as a "gross exaggeration".
"We are investigating a small matter involving four customer accounts and are in the process of resolving it. We can assure you that your guesstimate on the amount involved is a gross exaggeration-as indicated, the matter involves just four clients. For reasons of client confidentiality, it will be inappropriate to comment any further."
Standard Chartered did not comment on whether some of the investors were funded by the bank for investing in the debentures.
The trouble began when some of the investors tried to sell the papers back to Standard Chartered. According to a source in the wealth management industry, the bank declined to honour such 'deals' because buyback or repurchase of corporate bonds cannot be carried out between a bank and a private client. Currently, repurchase, or repo in technical parlance, of corporate bonds can take place only between institutions like banks and bond houses that are regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
"These clients were keen to raise funds before March 31 financial closing, but were unable to do it. Some of them have threatened to lodge an official complaint. As of now, only a few clients have realised the irregular nature of the transaction," said the person.
Standard Chartered has asked some officials to quit following investigations by the compliance department. Ashish Shankar, head of investment advisory at Standard Chartered Private Bank, is learnt to have gone on leave. According to sources, the bank is trying to make good the losses of clients who were misled by its relationship managers who had promised to buy back the securities, a promise Standard Chartered is not in a position to meet.
StanChart is also trying to find other investors who may be willing to buy the debentures from the private banking clients.
The StanChart incident, which follows the Rs 300-crore fraud at Citibank's Gurgaon branch, may force the banking regulator to tighten private banking and wealth management rules.
RBI may Tighten Leash
"The mis-selling by foreign and private banks happens because relationship managers are under a lot of pressure to gain revenue rather than sell the right product to the client," said a wealth management head with a Mumbai-based listed brokerage.
Towards end last year, Citi had filed a police complaint against one of its officials who had embezzled over Rs 300 crore of the multinational bank's wealthy clients. The mastermind of the Citi fraud, Shivraj Puri, used clients' money to take positions in stocks and derivatives by selling a fraudulent investment scheme. The bets backfired after the markets fell.
Wealth management and private banking, which cater to the rich and super-rich clients with special investment needs, were introduced by foreign banks. After the '91 Harshad Mehta securities scam , banks were banned from offering portfolio management services.
But as income levels grew over the years, select MNC banks introduced specialised wealth management services. In recent years, local private banks as well as PSU lenders have started wealth management divisions. "There may be a need for such a service. But banks must have robust systems to check misuse," said a senior banker.