Our “gahmen” should learn from the HK Government. They were quick to guarantee bank deposits (then followed by Singapore for fear of capital flight) and now asking the banks to buy back the structured notes from investors. It goes to show that they are more proactive than our seemingly complacent “gahmen” who likes to give us pap talks.

Wow, HK gov really serves its people.

But these HK guys are not paid world class salary as our SG govt. Surely HK solution is not as world class as compared to the Uniquely SG solution. Let them be the guinea pig. We better watch before we act :)

HK govt’s firm action against the banks is because, unlike Singapore, HK has no direct financial interest in the banks.

Asking DBS to investigate complaints of mis-selling is like asking a robber to investigate his own act of robbery. Even the so-called “independent observers” to DBS’s investigation are people chosen by the govt who partly owns DBS. Another similarity is the investigation of the escape of Mas Selamat. This modus operandi is really shameful and unethical.

Both HK and SG Monetary Authorities are at fault for allowing such products sold.

HK Gov is more aggressive in settling this because of public pressure. In SG, such pressure is much less. We only seeing more reports this week after the big turnout at Speakers’ Corner and online coverage by various sources.

SG Gov is really dragging itself. DBS should have settled the matters quickly. Don’t they realize the high political cost they are going to pay for dragging the matter?

Please read the HK news between the fine lines. What HK is doing is not to buy back the bonds at original price, but at “market price”. Ernst & Young has been appointed to compute a “fair value” so that the banks can pay that amount to investors. This amount would be based on what Lehman is worth after it has pay all its other secured creditors. In reality, the amount will be small, perhaps not more than 20% of the amount the investors have put in. Maybe even less. So, your retirees who have put in their live savings would still lose most of it.

“What HK is doing is not to buy back the bonds at original price, but at “market price”.”

Read the news
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/the-home-front/2008/10/15/ben-bernanke-why-we-didnt-bail-lehman-out.html

how much can a bankrupt and worthless Lehman bank worth anyway ? It is not even been bail out. I don’t think the HK investors are gullible and stupid now to accept current market value but their original principal. Can anyone guess what is left over after liquidation ?

Fair Value ? Hmmm…. Fair Price like NTUC ?

Anyway, just sit back and watch the protest of Hong Kong investors which likely to force the DBS bank to buy back at original value or at least more than 70% of value. Anything less could invoke tension because You are talking about foreign bank not local bank.

Since Hong Kong and Singapore are also financial hub competitors, I doubt Hong Kong will let DBS get away easily, at least not without casualty. I see that there will be some game theory at work here. As someone has mentioned, DBS is following Hong Kong so DBS is pretty much at mercy of Hong Kong as it has to match whatever measurement and decisions taken in Hong Kong else local fund could likely divert to Hong Kong due to more positive CARROT. As DBS keep following HOng Kong blindly, it might just lead itself to a indelible trap. Anyway,
Oppsss.. please don’t say “that there is a conspiracy to do us in” again.

Could this be a lesson to DBS ? But I thought Finance minister says that “Banks sound, system working well” What system ? System of selling financial and complicated products ? (I don’t know what their so-called system because I don’t digest ShittyTimes anymore as it tends to represent one partisan side of story) Is FM doing damage control or what , or wanna just move on ?
That is the problem. When there is a serious mistake , it won’t recognise as a mistake but just do coverup and rhetoric. Naturally, people are fedup with this governance. Have the guts to run business then have to guts to accept mistake and learn from it.

If you can prove mis-representation, the sale contract of the minibonds and high notes would be voided, thus the investor would get back his/her capital. That’s the hard part. HKMS admitted that they have too little evidence of mis-selling and mis-representation, so they can’t order the bank to return the invested capital.

Now you see why the Hong Kong government, which cost less than the Singapore government, are so much highly regarded: at least they bother to deal with the issues hands-on and immediately. That’s leadership.

Singapore, everything must wait and see. Like the poisoned milk incident. Meanwhile, people may wait and si(die). Then pay so much money to the minister for what? Copycating other people’s policies. Any idiots can do that for much, much less.

Could we invite HK Chief Executive Mr Donald Tsang to come and work as CEO of Singapore….

At the last Financial Crisis… he responded immediately and saved HK and help made much money for the govt when the economy recovers… And now, he is totally on the side of the HK depositors and gave no non sense warning to HK banks….

We all can wait and si(die), this crappy million dollar ministers will defend themselves and gives lots of crap at the monday’s parliament. They will give one liner answer and shy away from addressing the core issues. These buggers are the very politician we must kicked out in the next election. They run the place like a corporation and not a nation. A big shame on these incompetent and arrogant out of touch million dollar ministers.

No, Donald Tsang should work as chairman of MAS with SM title. Wow annual salary definitely cross S$4 million., may be close to S$5 million. any hong kongers on this blog ,plse convey to Donald Tsang, s’pore welcome him .we like what and how he tells the bank, “i want the banks to settle it by this week”. applause. at least he got guts and work for the people. in the meantime, our leaders go do opening ceremony for factory, hold press conference and comment china will be a super power in the next 20 yrs, bla, bla, bla, who dun know. again, u see important thing dun do or say, but doing and saying useless things.

i think we must seriously discuss the foreign talent issue.
it’s a very good system to get the best of the best from all over.

why don’t we hire a foreng-talent government?
i’m sure that by paying the ft government the same numerations we are paying our ministers, we will be able to get top-notch quality people to do the job that this govt cannot do.

since pap says that the ft system is so good and necessary, then go get some top-notch ft to work alongside you. maybe they can start looking for these in Hongkong.

Gahmen Exhange Programme
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NUS, NTU and universities all have foreign exchange programmes. I think our expensive gahmen benefit from exchange program due to their inexperience and arrogant attitude. Why don’t we swap our gahmen with Hong Kong gahmen for two years ? With our world class ministers that implement policies for that “your own good” and giving themselves millions, Hong Kong people will probably be more than happy to listen to the wisdom of our world-class gahmen. But be warned, our gahmen have the tendency to disappear at the right time at the right place, especially during crisis. And Hong Kong will be amazed of how good our gahmen relax regulation so much that they can regulate themselves out of accountability and responsibilities because over-regulation to them is not good, and it is better for the citizen to handle their own affairs. See, HK, how good is our gahmen, give you so much freedom when it comes to your own business, however when it comes to money business, gahmen are very interested, so you want or not ?

HK should expect world class behaviour from our gahmen in that whenever crisis happens, there will be radio silence of our top-notched gahmen as they hibernate for solution.

Let me guess how our gahmen govern HK.
Oh the first thing that our gahmen do when they govern HK is to implement GST, otherwise how can they give themselves millions as their performance and $$$ due to GDP ? In order to compete against Singapore, GST has to surpass Singapore, it has to be 8%. Opsss. next is to fix all opp party and buy supporter’s vote, giving carrots to everyone, as our gahmen believe that there is no such thing as free lunch hence be forewarn of expensive carrot which cost $10 to them may cost you $100 eventually. They will implement Kangaroo court so the citizen no longer need to visit the zoo to watch kangaroo. Want protest ? For the first year, you have to register first with the police and give US$1000 deposit, and please NO Kangaroo shirt or anything related to kangaroo allows but you can wear kangaroo underwear as long as it cannot be seen. ISA will be implemented to prevent dissidents like Dr Chee from arising to question the government that might compromise national security because gov cannot make mistake, only honest mistake, and if it is too honest to be true, it must be covered up. To prevent opp party from arising that is for your own good, GRC will be implemented even though you might not get the chance to see your MPs in action. You just have to trust the government whether you are blind or not blind.

With HOng Kong so congested, ERP must be implemented nation wide. Hong Kong must get use to PayAndPay scheme that is the trademark of our money-conscious gahmen. But don’t worry, our gahmen say ERP doesn’t earn profit at all, so no worry here and please don’t probe further about how is it ERP doesn’t earn profit else you end up like Dr Chee eating free curry rice in free accommodation.

With such world-class measurement and policies from our world-class governmet, HK will have more Good Years and golden period ahead and surpass Singapore in no time.

14) Daniel: exchange programme indeed. Which country dares to accept our ministers? Even the most desperate nation would hesitate

11) Feverguy: Singapore is not run like a corporation. It’s run like a labour camp pretending to be an INC. A corporation can go bankrupt. A labour camp will go on perpetually until the powers that be are demolished

5) Sarek_home: what political cost? There’s no political cost for Singapore as we have a solid bulletproof Govt. The only cost is opportunity cost. If they punish the banks, they’ll scare off FI. I think MAS will stop here and hope that as HK irks the businesses, they will move to S’pore so that we can surpass them as the everything hub. You think our Govt stupid?

To all Singaporeans with a chance to vote at the next GE; reflect and do the right, respectable and responsible thing. Bowing to fear will only spell a meaningless existence for your future generations. As it is, the Govt already sees it fit to tell you how to get your children hitched. It’s a mockery disguised as concern. When we wanted to have more children, they said 2 is enough. When our children are too stressed to get married, they say Get married, have babies, or else we flood you with more FTs selling things and giving out flyers in the neighbourhood. Give us a break.

Hats off to you – Daniel

14) Daniel: exchange programme indeed. Which country dares to accept our ministers? Even the most desperate nation would hesitate

Not exactly duh, maybe Myanmar and N.Korea may welcome them with red carpet.

tiredsingaporean,
you are right. Look like Singapore needs to buy back our ministers at market value if Hong Kong doesn’t want our gahmen.

[...] Some bloggers have already suggested this. When DBS (Hong Kong) announced their response after some pressure from the Hong Kong’s Government, many Singaporeans were kept blind about it. Not until some gungho netizen dug up the news [...]