By Francis Chan

DBS Group Holdings chief executive Richard Stanley has defended the bank's sale of now-worthless products linked to bankrupt Lehman Brothers in his first public comments on the furore.

'DBS would never knowingly do anything that will hurt customers,' Mr Stanley said, speaking at the release of DBS' third-quarter results yesterday.

He said that when DBS sold the High Notes 5 product and Constellation Notes in Hong Kong, 'the world was a vastly different place'.

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