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'My phone has been ringing and we had an emergency meeting the day after that,' she said.
These are testing times for the lot of people whose business cards declare them to be relationship managers, personal bankers or personal financial consultants. They are being accused of selling complex financial products they know little about or 'mis-selling' them, especially to the old and illiterate.
Since the crisis broke, long hours have been common. One foreign bank's relationship manager, four years in the business but who declined to give his age, is fielding twice the number of calls now compared with a month ago.
The 24-year-old personal banker, who has two years' experience and works in a local bank, says logging in three hours' overtime daily is common now. Servicing existing clients worried about their money is what keeps her busy.
She said: 'Right now it's hard to do investments when everyone is so sceptical.'
A 26-year-old working in a foreign bank describes her day this way: 'Our phones, be it our mobile phones or landlines, keep ringing and our e-mail boxes are flooded.'
Worried people can be downright abusive. Even violent.
An assistant relationship manager with a private bank has heard cases of customers going up to his peers at other banks to verbally or even physically abuse them by throwing things at them.
That some investors are confused and worried about whether their investments are safe is not in doubt.
Cobbler Leong Soon Woh, 80, took all his bank documents to what he described as the 'key bank' - a reference to POSBank, which has a key for its logo - when he heard about the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
He did not know that his investments, amounting to $30,000, were not Lehman-linked: 'How would I know? I didn't study much and I don't understand English.'
A 78-year-old retiree who did not want to be named described relationship managers as 'quite pushy'. He has never bought anything from them.
He said: 'I tell them, 'If these products are so good, you wouldn't be here selling them, would you?''
None of the 14 relationship managers The Straits Times spoke to - nine still in the business and five who used to do the job - wanted to be named, citing their financial institutions' policy against talking to reporters or simply because this is a good time to shun the spotlight.
A basic degree in any discipline is usually required of a personal banker or relationship manager. The designation differs from bank to bank.
Someone in this job would have to undergo training and, under the Financial Advisers Act, sit for the mandatory Capital Markets and Financial Advisory Services examinations. They are required to take different modules, depending on the products they are to promote, with exemptions offered for professional qualifications.
Yes, they have targets to meet every month for different product types, and some have to work weekends to do so.
Junior managers who do well can earn well beyond $2,500 or so in basic pay. Throw in the commissions and the take-home could hit $20,000.
For those more senior, 'there's basically no ceiling', said the 26-year-old relationship manager.
Financial institutions differ in the way they calculate commissions. They take into account the number and value of products sold. Points or multipliers may be allocated to different products.
A private banker who used to be a foreign bank branch manager and who identified himself only as Mr Lim said: 'When times are good, bonuses are attractive. But in times like these when banks are making losses, you don't know if you will have work tomorrow.'
What is clear: They resent being cast as villains of the piece.
No one could have predicted the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the subsequent routing of the financial markets, they argued.
Mr Lim, noting that Lehman Brothers had survived even the Great Depression of 1929, added: 'If you had asked me about Minibonds six months ago, I would have said, 'Sure, go ahead'.'
A former personal banker with a foreign bank, a Mr Lee, said the Lehman Minibonds were, in fact, 'one of the safest products at that time'.
One senior relationship manager said he bought about $200,000 worth of Minibonds too, besides selling them to his clients.
'Many people think that relationship managers push products without believing in them. What they do not know is that we invest in the same things we recommend customers,' he said.
These relationship managers say they do not set out to target the elderly, as has been reported in the media; they home in on the affluent, who happen to be retirees with money to spare.
Casting the elderly as 'victims' is scarcely fair, they said.
'Yes, the retiree segment is an affluent segment and one we target but, having said that, 90 per cent of them are educated and sophisticated people, not uneducated ones,' said Mr Lim.
He added: 'Everyone knows what they've bought - until things get bad.'
The 24-year-old local personal banker said she now has customers telling her to her face that they trust neither her nor the bank.
'Those coming in now just want to put their money in fixed deposits. They say we bankers are out to cheat them of their money.'
As for the charge that bankers hit on the non-English-speaking, she said her bank has brochures in Chinese, but if a potential client is illiterate, she will ask him or her to return with their children, who become co-signees in the investment.
'We don't want them to sign today, only to go back home and show their kids what they've bought and then come back to the bank to cancel,' she said.
Another safeguard: Before a deal with anyone aged above 65 is made, her superior calls them up to be sure they know what they are investing in.
One former personal banker admitted the language barrier could be a problem, so she avoids selling the more complicated products to the non-English-speaking since 'they are not savvy investors'.
Financial institutions also undertake risk-profiling: They ask potential clients about their objectives, the amount of money they are willing to lock in and the time period they are looking at. This is so they can pitch the right kind of investment with the level of risk the client is willing to bear.
One former personal banker concedes that it is tough for most to resist the temptation to sell products that reel in higher commissions.
She said: 'If this product has a multiplier of 12 but my client needs a product which has a multiplier of only three, do I sell him the one he needs and work four times harder?
'It's up to the integrity of each personal banker.'
There would also be those who highlight the good points and skim over the details, 'like (in) all sales jobs', said another.
Personal integrity aside, a couple of those interviewed say they were only following briefs from the product structurers or distributors who tell them 'this is how the product works, this is how you should sell it'.
The 24-year-old relationship manager said: 'The fund managers themselves are not telling us the entire truth. They just tell us what the selling points are, and how to direct this to the customers.'
But some said clients who prefer straightforward briefings, quick answers on returns and glaze over the details were partially at fault as well.
With the current pressure on them, those interviewed said several young managers, even those still serving their training bonds, have thrown in the towel. Some even pay between a few thousand dollars and $10,000 to break that bond.
A relationship manager in her 20s and working in a foreign bank said: 'A lot of us would never do anything to intentionally harm the customer. It brings no benefit to us.
'We are in a difficult position. I don't think anyone feels good telling the customer 'You've lost your investments' or 'Your principal is gone'.'
