THERE is good news for investors of Minibonds, a structured product linked to bankrupt US investment bank Lehman Brothers - A bank based in Hong Kong has expressed an interest to replace Lehman as the swap counterparty for all series of the Minibond programme.

Former chief executive officer of insurer NTUC Income, Mr Tan Kin Lian, shared the good news with about 600 investors who turned up at Speakers' Corner again on Saturday to hear him speak.

Although he declined to reveal further details of the arrangement, he said the bank had approached him after learning about him from his blog.

He also said that he had already referred the Hong Kong bank to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and HSBC Trustee, which is the trustee for Minibonds.

Last week, the MAS announced that HSBC Trustee had informed the central bank that 'a few financial institutions are currently considering taking on (the) role' of the swap counterparty and should there be a firm offer from an appropriate party, the trustee would seek the necessary approval from investors.

On Friday, managing director of MAS, Mr Heng Swee Keat also said that the MAS expects the trustee to know whether options will be available to Minibond investors by the end of next week.

Post your comments online here.