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Nov 4, 2008
Dialogues with DBS investors
By Francis Chan
DBS High Notes 5 investors will gather at Suntec City again on Tuesday to seek recourse from the bank, which sold them what they now believe are toxic investments.

The two forums scheduled for 11.30am and 2.30pm come on the heels of four similar meetings held last week for investors of Lehman-linked structured products.

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.

Investors attending Tuesday's forums would have found out by now that their investment in the notes is now worthless.

An increasing number who have complained of mis-selling would also have received letters from DBS informing them that their complaints have been reviewed and they will not be getting any compensation.

On Saturday, the investor group left a post on its website asking investors who have received similar letters for feedback and what they plan to do next.

Last week's forums were attended by about 700 investors who are among 2,400 DBS customers who invested some $170 million into credit-linked notes - High Notes 2 and High Notes 5 - sold by DBS.

About 300 have registered for Tuesday's forums. But not all showed up on Tuesday morning.

Investors who attended the forums last week left the meetings failing to reach any resolution with the bank.

They had expected DBS to offer some form of 'blanket buyback' of the product but that did not happen.

Although DBS assured investors that it would conduct a review of all sales transactions of High Notes 5 to uncover any mis-selling, the bank's case-by-case approach did not go down well with investors.

The investor group issued a press statement after the forum last Friday, saying that most attendees felt that the 'sessions have not moved the complaint or the compensation processes forward in any significant manner'.

DBS on Oct 24 said it has started the process of compensating some customers facing losses from the notes and should complete the process by the end of the year.

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