Lone protestor’s plea: “Return my medical fee”

AsiaOne, 23 Dec 2008
AsiaOne link

Hobbling on clutches, 54-year-old Lin Jinjiao struck a lone note of protest at Raffles Place in Singapore’s Central Business District during lunchtime yesterday.

A cancer patient, who underwent an operation to remove a tumour in August, she hung card boards torn from a paper carton around her neck.

Handwritten in English and Chinese, the card boards highlighted Ms Lin’s plight after she invested in DBS High Notes 5.

Ms Lin told Lianhe Zaobao that she invested $50,000 in DBS High Notes 5 and other investment products.

However, with the global credit meltdown, she lost the principal sum she had invested.

She had protested to DBS and had three interviews with them. She was then told that the bank would not compensate her for her loss.

In the letter from DBS, she was also informed that if she did not accept the bank’s decision, she could file a complaint with the Financial Industry Disputes Resolution Centre Ltd (FIDReC).

According to the FIDReC website, “to date, more than 380 financial institutions have subscribed to FIDReC and have agreed to submit to the jurisdiction of FIDReC in adjudicating complaints against them by consumers”.

During her interview with Zaobao, Ms Lin added that she had also invested in Lehman Minibonds with another investment firm. She claimed that the firm had started discussing compensation a week after one meeting with her.

She also said she had since signed an agreement with said investment company regarding the compensation amount and, therefore, could not give Zaobao further details.

She was very dissatisfied with DBS because the bank’s letter to her had not explained why she would not be compensated.

Ms Lin told the Chinese daily that she did not understand English, so when she called the FIDReC and found out that the resolution process and sessions would be conducted in English, she felt this was unfair to people like her.

Teary-eyed, she told Zaobao: “I know I’m making a fool of myself, but I hope that what I’ve done at Raffles Place will catch the public’s attention and persuade them to give non-English speaking retirees like myself fair treatment.”

However, the FIDReC told Zaobao that if any complainant could not understand English, the centre’s staff would provide assistance. Its spokesperson also said that, at the arbitration stage, complainants could authorise a close friend or relation, who could speak and understand English, to help him or her.

Meeting with DBS staff

Ms Lin protested at Raffles Place for about an hour, drawing much attention from the lunch-time crowd.

After that, she headed towards the Royal Brothers Building, where a DBS branch was located.

A manager saw Ms Lin and invited her to the office to talk about her dissatisfaction. Ms Lin, however, said it was not convenient for her to move further into the premises and insisted on sitting in the main hall.

Finally, 45 minutes later, Ms Lin relented and followed a bank staff into the office.

In reply to Zaobao’s query, DBS said the bank had already informed Ms Lin that it would re-assess her complaint and would inform her of the latest outcome by February next year.

DBS added that it could not reveal details about its compensation criteria as this could compromise the confidentiality of clients’ investment details and the cases in process.

The spokesperson confirmed to Zaobao that work on the cases were progressing smoothly and that the bank was doing its best to complete the work by February next year.

About 1,400 have invested about $1.3 billion in High Notes 5.