Singapore woman held protest against DBS at Raffles Place

December 23, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Breaking News, Singapore Enquirer, Wayang Party Club 

Translated from Chinese newspaper article by Cheng Siew Peng, for the Wayang Party Club
23 Dec 2008

Original blog link

In what was possibly the first ever protest at Singapore’s busy Central Business District, a 54 year old lady by the name of Madam Lin Jin Jiao held a solo protest at Raffles Place yesterday during lunch time.

Lin who suffered from cancer, strapped a cardboard sign on herself with the Chinese characters “DBS – returned me my medical expenses”.

She had invested, and lost her retirement funds of S$50,000 in the now-worthless DBS High Notes 5 (HN5) investment product.

In her protest yesterday, she accused DBS of mis-selling for investing her money in a high risk toxic investment product.

The bank has rejected her complaints for compensation after three rounds of interview and did not provide her any reasons for it. It informed her by post that she can seek redress with FIDReC if she is unhappy with its decision. However, she was unable to lodge a complaint through the FIDReC hotline as she doesn’t know English while its staff can only communicate in English.

Madam Lin spent almost a hour at Raffles Place, attracting weird stares from onlookers. She claimed that she was aware that her behavior is like a “clown”, but she hopes her antics will attract public attention to her plight. Later, she “marches” on to the DBS branch at Royal Brothers Building.

The bank manager invited Madam Lin to discuss the matter at his office, but she refused on the grounds on “inconvenience of movements” and insisted on sitting at the hall. After 45 minutes, she finally relented and followed the manager into his office.

A DBS spokesman told our paper (Zaobao) that they have re-evaluated Madam Lin’s complaints and will inform her of the outcome the latest by February next year.

About 1,400 people invested a total of S$1.3 billion dollars in HN5.

Read Chinese article here

Visit wayangparty.com for further breaking news on this event.

Original Chinese article

星展HN5苦主身挂纸板　莱佛士坊抗议

陈能端

54岁的癌症病患林金娇昨天中午在自己身上挂上纸板，穿梭在莱佛士坊的人群中。她并不是为产品做宣传，而是想对星展银行提出抗议。

在8月间切除腿部神经肿瘤的林金娇拄着拐杖来到金融区，胸前和背后都挂上了纸皮板，板上醒目地写着她的抗议。

林金娇称说自己两年前把5万元投资在星展高升短期债券5（DBS High Notes 5，简称HN5）和其他产品。

金融风暴后，HN5票据受到影响，赎回金额是零，她保不住老本。她向星展银行投诉，进行过三次面试后，对方发通知书告知他们经过评估后，不会赔偿她。

通知书也说，如果林金娇不接受银行的决定，可向金融业争议调解中心（FIDReC）寻求裁决。

林金娇受访时说，她也通过另一家金融机构投资雷曼兄弟迷你债券，对方和她进行了一轮面谈，在一个星期后就和她洽谈赔偿的课题。

林金娇因此对星展银行非常不满，因为星展给她的信中，没有说明拒绝赔偿的理由。

至于林金娇之前获得的赔偿数额，她声称已经和那家金融机构签署了协议，无法透露详情。

另一方面，林金娇说自己不谙英语，她打电话到金融业争议调解中心后，发现调解过程只能用英语，她觉得很不公平。

眼眶泛红的林金娇说：“我知道自己的行为像小丑，但我希望这能引起大家的关注，公平对待我们这种英语不好的退休老人。”

林金娇在莱佛士坊逗留了一个小时，吸引了不少公众的目光。

她过后“游行”到皇家兄弟大厦（Royal Brothers Building）的星展银行分行去。

银行客户经理看到林金娇走进来，尝试邀请她到办公室内详谈。林金娇以行动不便为由，坚持坐在大厅。周旋了45分钟左右后，林金娇和银行职员进入办公室。

星展银行回答本报询问说，他们已通知林金娇，银行将重新评估她针对HN5的投诉，最迟在明年2月告诉她结果。

至于星展银行在什么情况下提供赔偿，银行发言人表示，这关系到客户资料及个案，不方便置评。

发言人也说，处理个案的工作正顺利进行，他们会尽量在明年之前，完成这项工作。

约1400人投资了HN5，总投资额为1亿零300万元。

此外，金融业争议调解中心也告诉本报，如果公众无法以英语提出投诉，他们的工作人员会提供相关的援助。

到了仲裁阶段，投诉者可以委任一名听得懂和能够讲英语的亲友来协助他。

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Comments

2 Comments on Singapore woman held protest against DBS at Raffles Place

  1. The Singapore Daily » Blog Archive » Daily SG: 24 Dec 2008 on Wed, 24th Dec 2008 11:36 am

    2. [...] Notes and Mini Bombs – Sgpolitics: Singapore woman held protest against DBS at Raffles Place – Tan Kin Lian’s Blog: Meeting at Speaker’s Corner, Sat 27 Dec, 5 [...]

  2. Daniel on Thu, 25th Dec 2008 12:12 pm

    3. Hmmm, “DBS returned me my medical expenses.” I don’t get it. If DBS has returned something to her, then why is she unhappy? Did they return them or not?

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