When Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection on Sept 15 last year, Singapore lawyer Siraj Omar had just completed a court hearing and was largely unaffected by the news.

But a year on and the managing director of Premier Law is leading the charge in a collective action lawsuit against Singapore's largest bank, DBS.

His clients - 204 to be exact - lost about $17 million invested in DBS High Notes 5.

They are suing the bank to get a refund of their stakes in the complex investment product linked to the now-bankrupt United States investment bank.

The date for a hearing has yet to be fixed.

Said Mr Siraj, 37: 'It's a landmark case because representative actions are not common in this part of the world and this is the first following the Lehman collapse,' he said.

There are now two collective action lawsuits filed against distributors of DBS High Notes 5 and Lehman Minibonds, another toxic product linked to Lehman.

Besides the lawsuit initiated by Mr Siraj's clients in July, a second legal action was started last Thursday by another group of 165 investors who lost about $20 million in total on Minibonds.

This group is bankrolling the action against the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Minibond Limited, and Lehman Brothers Singapore, on behalf of five investors who lost $2.1 million.

According to the group's lawyer, Mr Conrad Campos, the five were initially clients of ABN Amro, which RBS took over in 2007.

He said the remaining members of the group who bought Minibonds from other institutions are hoping that the lawsuit will serve as a test case and set a precedent that will pave the way for them to make similar claims.

Mr Siraj said his firm has seen a 10 per cent to 15 per cent rise in inquiries from affected investors since the fiasco.

'It's not like we're going from zero to 50 inquiries but there have been more since Lehman collapsed,' he said.

Win or lose, he believes the case will increase awareness that some investment products are just not suitable for retail investors.

Francis Chan

This article was first published in The Straits Times.