DBS Highnote 5

[Jamjammer]

The bank do not con people. If the consumer is doubtful, he should asked before investing.

 

If you go to an electrical shop to buy a TV, do you ask if the TV is HD ready ? Do you ask if it comes with teletext ? Do you ask if you can get further discount ? Do you ask if there is GST ? Do you ask if they provide free delivery ?

 

What's the diff between buying an investment from a TV ?

 

That is thh problem with typical Singaporean, when you gain from your investment, you do not ask why or you don't even bother to say thank you to your banker. When you lose on your investment, you start KPKB.

 

BTW, I am not a banker, I am from IT and a Singaporean. And I do invest, and I do lose in investment, but I do know what I have invested and I don't cry over a spill milk. If you can't afford to lose money, don't invest. If you invest, prepare to lose.

 

Yes, Banks dont con people.

 

How can the sales people just sell these to old people and tell them that this is a relatively "safe" product, similar to FD where you will get your money back and they pay good "interest".

 

To set the record straight, this is not bonds. Minibonds or whatever yield notes is not bonds, it's CDS - credit default swaps. In layman terms, buyers give the money to the issuer and get the yields ie the premium for the insurance the buyers bear.

 

My mum-in-law almost got con by these sales people. Thank goodness she ask me, else her money is definitely gone by now. How could the Deep Blue Sea be so irresponsible to allow their staff to sell to man in the streets like that!!

 

This episode expose the check and balance of the banks, the regulator, compliance dept, etc. Hope that real justice is met out but then it's now too late for those that suffer the real loss, sigh. This incident is really a sobbering learning experience even for all of us, there is NO FREE LUNCH, sigh....

[Silver_blade]

with the troubled waters that we are in right now, i wonder where is the best place to keep our $$.

No where. But at this moment, i think it's safer to leave in local banks...at least if anything is to happen, the gov will intervene and that will buy us some time to get our money out and look at other safer options.

[Qpik]

cover yr bases, cannot put yr eggs in 1 local bank.

 

hmm maybe time to convert into GOLD BAR hor

[Silver_blade]

Agree[nod] .....no bank is 100% safe...not even the gov-backed ones. In fact, i think DBS has the highest exposure among the local banks. But local banks are still the safest at this moment....for the reasons I mentioned.

[Genie47]

These instruments are created with the help of rocket scientists. Many of these rocket scientists do not even understand how they are even supposed to work. Why do we expect rating agencies like Moody's or S&P to understand them? Of course they are also the facilitator with their ratings which the buyers trust.

 

So if the ratings agencies don't understand them, you expect the bank higher ups to understand them let alone the bank employees who peddle these stuff to people who don't know how they work?

 

Its like officially giving the go ahead to sell magic stones to the public to cure cancer. How it works? We don't know but there is money to be made.

 

And no, if you invest, you are not supposed to lose the money. Rule no. 1 by Buffett. If you invest thinking it is your excess money that you can afford to lose, you will lose it anyway.

 

In this world where every investor craves for higher and higher yields unrealistically asking for lower risk, this is what happens. This is the real true cause of the entire crisis. The subprime with its CDOs and derivatives are a reflection of this.

 

Thanks to securitization, cow dung is can become gold.

[Chongster]

they are actually very easy to understand, just that they got lawyers to write inch-think prospectus that befuddles the whole thing and confuses everyone.

 

if you know how to play big small in casinos, you should be able to understand these products so long as you can be bothered to read the technical language.

[Chongster]

agree. if you look at DBS parent, Temasek, they are pretty enamoured by the wall st type and investment banking, and i think that philosophy permeates thru to DBS. so amg the local banks, they are the ones that seems most wanting to dabble in all these sexy stuff. or maybe they are just much bigger.

[Genie47]

They are not easy to understand. You will get a headache for just trying to understand them. Read Credit Derivatives by Frank J Fabozzi.

 

Mindboggling!

[Silver_blade]

Some investors in HK are taking sellers of the Lehman Bro mini bond to court for misrepresentation.

 

I wonder if our local investors can do the same. So they have a case...cos some do not know English and bought it in faith..that the bank representative had fully explained all the T&C + risk to them.

[Chongster]

the usual FAs in the bank that prey on old people renewing deposits? they should put a stop to that a long time ago.

 

it's going to be a very very expensive suit that will go all the way to Court of Appeal, because the banks cannot afford to set a precedent. would be interesting.

 

i don't think there is class action suit here, but probably someone rich enough and who bought enough of these would sue. the rest can wait for the test case before bringing their own suit.

[Silver_blade]

I agree that class action against the sellers is unlikely to happen here. The super rich and influential ones would have dealt with the seller privately and had come to a settlement with a gag-agreement.

[Zanter]

..........with the troubled waters that we are in right now, i wonder where is the best place to keep our $$..........

 

err.....CPF is your best bet!!! contribute to SRS will ensure ur retirement are well taken care off .......sure safe, safe until u cant even touch it........

 

. Yeah SRS is v safe unless Sg govt close shop.

 

Many people were led to believe bonds are v safe investments & that DBS are the principal. They dont even know what they are putting $ into. Heck, the salesman dont even know what they r selling, how to advise the customers?

[Blackyv]

and If really going to court, we know who can afford and will hire L&L and with L&L representing, the final verdict is quite clear even before it starts....