By Francis Chan

MORE than 200 investors who lost a total of about $17 million on structured notes sold by DBS Bank are suing the bank in a bid to get their money back.

Legal firm Premier Law, which served notice on DBS yesterday, said the claim is based on the 'prospectus and pricing statement relating to the [DBS High] Notes 5'.

The investors want the notes declared 'void' and their stakes repaid.

It's future behaviour of banks that matters

By Ignatius Low, Money Editor

LAST year, more than 10,000 investors who had invested in Lehman-linked structured products lost their money when the US investment bank collapsed.

Seven months later, after an extensive investigation, the 10 financial institutions (FIs) who peddled these products have been punished. They have been banned from selling this type of product for periods ranging from six months to two years. Still, one might ask whether Singapore's financial regulators have let these FIs off too easily. After all, they were not fined a single cent or asked to compensate investors more.

Critics also point out that the collapse of these investments has meant that no one currently wants to buy any structured products. So the selling bans will not be punishments as such since they won't hurt the FIs very much.

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