luckily i am just average guy happy with 0.75% on my savings
priority customers got special room, don't need queue like me, but their priority cause them much grief when they become greedy for 5%
the lesson is don't be coaxed to think you are special, dont have such fragile ego, wanna have big title, big car
dbs should only compensate only aged 62 and uneducated, the rest priority especially those with uni degree should suffer the consequence of their GREED
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Singapore/Story/STIStory_297193.html
Home > Breaking News > Singapore > Story
Nov 1, 2008
Buyback demanded
By Francis Chan
ST PHOTO: LIM SIN THAI
INVESTORS who bought a similar product to the now worthless DBS High Notes 5 left dialogues with the bank yesterday unable to obtain the quick resolution they wanted.
They expected DBS to offer some form of 'blanket buyback' of the product but were told to lodge complaints if they felt misled into investing.
RELATED LINKS
CREDIT LINKED NOTES - DBS NOTES SERIES
Almost 400 people who bought the High Notes 2 product attended two separate dialogues yesterday specially set up to allow worried investors to ask about their investment.
High Notes 2 still has value, unlike High Notes 5, but it is hovering around 16 per cent of the initial value so investors fear that they may also be left with nothing eventually.
About 1,000 people here - mostly priority banking customers with over $200,000 in assets each - have $70 million tied up in the product.
Yesterday's sessions, which followed similar forums on Thursday for High Notes 5 investors, were closed to the media.
Investors said later that most questions centred on whether DBS should offer to make an immediate 'blanket compensation'.
One investor, a 38-year-old computer engineer who declined to give her name, said: 'Most, if not all of the people in the room, were like me; they feel they have been misled into buying the notes.
'We demanded 100 per cent compensation but DBS said they will look at our complaints case by case.'
Investors who spoke to The Straits Times had invested between $25,000 and $500,000 in High Notes 2. DBS told them that reviews would be done on a case-by-case basis. This is also its approach to investors in High Notes 5.
The High Notes 2 product is similar to High Notes 5 except for one crucial detail - its eight 'Reference Entities' do not include the now bankrupt US bank Lehman Brothers.
It was the direct exposure to Lehman Brothers that triggered the collapse of High Notes 5.
But High Notes 2 still has an indirect exposure to Lehman as well as US mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both of which are now on life support.
DBS said this exposure led rating agency Standard & Poor's to downgrade the collateral of High Notes 2 on Sept 23.
The bank said the downgrade will not mean an early redemption of the notes - they are due to mature in 2011 - but the latest indicative valuation has fallen to 16 per cent. That means every dollar invested in the product is now worth just 16 cents.
Investors get a semi-annual payout of about 4 per cent for the first three-and-a-half years and 5 per cent a year for the last 18 months.
DBS has also periodically assured investors that if the five-year notes were 'held to maturity', they will receive the principal invested, barring any credit event and early redemption.
Meanwhile, the 300-strong action body called DBS Hi Notes Investor Group fired another salvo at the bank yesterday.
'The immediate post-forum reaction of most attendees is that the sessions have not moved the complaint or the compensation processes forward in any significant manner,' it said.
[email protected]
priority customers got special room, don't need queue like me, but their priority cause them much grief when they become greedy for 5%
the lesson is don't be coaxed to think you are special, dont have such fragile ego, wanna have big title, big car
dbs should only compensate only aged 62 and uneducated, the rest priority especially those with uni degree should suffer the consequence of their GREED
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Singapore/Story/STIStory_297193.html
Home > Breaking News > Singapore > Story
Nov 1, 2008
Buyback demanded
By Francis Chan
ST PHOTO: LIM SIN THAI
INVESTORS who bought a similar product to the now worthless DBS High Notes 5 left dialogues with the bank yesterday unable to obtain the quick resolution they wanted.
They expected DBS to offer some form of 'blanket buyback' of the product but were told to lodge complaints if they felt misled into investing.
RELATED LINKS
CREDIT LINKED NOTES - DBS NOTES SERIES
Almost 400 people who bought the High Notes 2 product attended two separate dialogues yesterday specially set up to allow worried investors to ask about their investment.
High Notes 2 still has value, unlike High Notes 5, but it is hovering around 16 per cent of the initial value so investors fear that they may also be left with nothing eventually.
About 1,000 people here - mostly priority banking customers with over $200,000 in assets each - have $70 million tied up in the product.
Yesterday's sessions, which followed similar forums on Thursday for High Notes 5 investors, were closed to the media.
Investors said later that most questions centred on whether DBS should offer to make an immediate 'blanket compensation'.
One investor, a 38-year-old computer engineer who declined to give her name, said: 'Most, if not all of the people in the room, were like me; they feel they have been misled into buying the notes.
'We demanded 100 per cent compensation but DBS said they will look at our complaints case by case.'
Investors who spoke to The Straits Times had invested between $25,000 and $500,000 in High Notes 2. DBS told them that reviews would be done on a case-by-case basis. This is also its approach to investors in High Notes 5.
The High Notes 2 product is similar to High Notes 5 except for one crucial detail - its eight 'Reference Entities' do not include the now bankrupt US bank Lehman Brothers.
It was the direct exposure to Lehman Brothers that triggered the collapse of High Notes 5.
But High Notes 2 still has an indirect exposure to Lehman as well as US mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both of which are now on life support.
DBS said this exposure led rating agency Standard & Poor's to downgrade the collateral of High Notes 2 on Sept 23.
The bank said the downgrade will not mean an early redemption of the notes - they are due to mature in 2011 - but the latest indicative valuation has fallen to 16 per cent. That means every dollar invested in the product is now worth just 16 cents.
Investors get a semi-annual payout of about 4 per cent for the first three-and-a-half years and 5 per cent a year for the last 18 months.
DBS has also periodically assured investors that if the five-year notes were 'held to maturity', they will receive the principal invested, barring any credit event and early redemption.
Meanwhile, the 300-strong action body called DBS Hi Notes Investor Group fired another salvo at the bank yesterday.
'The immediate post-forum reaction of most attendees is that the sessions have not moved the complaint or the compensation processes forward in any significant manner,' it said.
[email protected]
