A 'DISTURBING' number of High Notes 5 investors have yet to receive any reply from DBS Bank after filing complaints that they were mis-sold the notes, said Mr Gerard Ee yesterday.

This is despite the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) advising financial institutions to respond promptly to complaints from customers who had bought the Lehman-linked structured products.

Aside from DBS, institutions which sold other products such as Lehman Minibonds and Merrill Lynch Jubilee Series 3 were advised to acknowledge receipt of complaints within two working days.

But some investors are complaining that DBS has taken 'weeks' to respond, said Mr Ee, who was appointed by DBS as an independent external consultant to oversee the complaints process.

'I accept there will be lapses because of the volume itself; you can't process hundreds of cases within 48 hours,' Mr Ee said on the sidelines of the first of two High Notes 5 investor forums held at Suntec City yesterday.

'But to hear people saying that it's been three weeks, four weeks, five weeks and they haven't heard a reply, that's not acceptable.'

According to Mr Ee, late replies by DBS were one of the recurring issues raised by investors during the forums he attended.

'Especially during this period where people are emotional, they want a reply... if nothing more, just to acknowledge that I've received your complaint and I'm attending to it,' said Mr Ee. 'But total silence is not acceptable.'

A DBS spokesman said yesterday that the bank was unable to contact all investors immediately due to the overwhelming number of cases.

'We apologise that due to the sheer volume on hand, we were not able to contact some of our customers in a timely manner,' the spokesman said.

'Based on the feedback we have got from our customers and the open forums, we are refining our complaint-handling process and have added more staff to address the concerns raised.'

The two forums yesterday followed four similar meetings held last week for investors of High Notes 2 and 5.

The sessions were organised by DBS in response to a request on Oct 21 by a 300-strong action body called DBS Hi Notes Investor Group.

Last week's forums were attended by about 700 investors who were among 2,400 DBS customers who had invested about $170 million in the High Notes 2 and High Notes 5 products sold by the bank.

About 250 registered for yesterday's forums but not all showed up.

DBS has received more than 650 complaints from its High Notes 5 investors, added the spokesman.

The bank said it has contacted 85 per cent of these customers, 'informing them that we have received their feedback and are in the midst of investigating their cases'.

DBS has committed itself to reviewing all 1,400 High Notes 5 cases by the end of the year.

Mr Ee added that the bank is 'bent on not crossing the end of the year' to resolve this issue, and that even includes covering cases where High Notes 5 customers have not written in to complain.

However, he reminded investors that the bank has to 'handle each case on its own merits'. If investors are unhappy with DBS' resolution, they can still go to the Financial Industry Disputes Resolution Centre, and to the courts after that.

And on whether he disagreed with any of DBS' assessments of review cases so far, Mr Ee said: 'So far, only one.' He did not elaborate.

Investors of products directly or indirectly connected to bankrupt Lehman Brothers recently said they were confused about how sellers defined 'vulnerable' investors, a key group that the MAS has asked institutions to prioritise.

The central bank reiterated yesterday that vulnerable customers could include investors with such characteristics as 'a low level of education, a lack of proficiency in English, being retired or unemployed and whether the investment amount constitutes a large part of total savings'.

MAS managing director Heng Swee Keat had mentioned on Oct 17 that 'these indicators may not automatically mean that a customer is vulnerable'.

'You could have certain individuals who are elderly but who have been investing in the markets for some time,' he added.

fiochan@sph.com.sg

franchan@sph.com.sg