THE recent move to ban 10 institutions from selling complex financial products will come under scrutiny next Monday when Parliament sits. The two questions due to be addressed first at the sitting are related to the issue.

Mr Lim Biow Chuan (Marine Parade GRC) and Non-Constituency MP Sylvia Lim, both asked if the ban was sufficient. They also want to know if more could be done to safeguard investors.

Last week, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) handed out one- and two-year selling bans on the financial institutions, which had sold investment products that went sour after the collapse of United States investment bank Lehman Brothers. The ban came after seven months of investigations.

About 9,900 people lost most, or all, of their investments totalling about $520 million in structured notes such as Lehman Minibonds, DBS High Notes 5 and Merrill Lynch Jubilee Series 3 LinkEarner Notes. Mr Lim told The Straits Times on Friday that his major concern is to ensure a similar lapse does not happen again.

He wants MAS to spell out how it intends to prevent such a repeat. He said: 'A lot of people were affected and I think the MAS report has indicated that the financial institutions have not done their selling in a proper manner.

'Could we have done more to make sure the situation does not arise again? There must be lessons learnt, not just telling the banks not to sell for a few years.'

Mr Lim worries that if the right safeguards are not put in place, it could happen again when people are caught up in the 'euphoria of a good economy'.

The current bad economy though, continues to be at the forefront of MPs' minds. At least five MPs have submitted questions on it, mostly about the jobless.

Madam Halimah Yacob (Jurong GRC) is particularly worried about the group known as the PMETs (professionals, managers, executives and technicians). She said: 'The infrastructure for helping the rank-and-file is well established. But it seems to be at the formative stage for PMETs. Moving ahead, this is one area we really need to focus on.'

But before Parliament settles into its normal business, it will engage in a bit of ceremony. The nine newly appointed Nominated MPs will take their oath of allegiance at the start of the sitting.

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times

jeremyau@sph.com.sg