Liar Liar

My favorite blogger has got me in the spirit of blogging again with his latest post

I’m tired too. So tired that I don’t have the energy to blog regularly. This is not the best time to be a banker I suppose.

Unlike Mr Wong, I don’t work in an investment bank, I’m not a lawyer, so maybe he got it tougher.

Or maybe not. At least I bet he doesn’t get people shouting in his face calling him a cheat.

I work in a retail bank but we face similar problems that he mentioned in his post

• People will really go all out to extricate themselves from a deal gone bad
• That includes employing tactics which are dishonest and unethical, and sometimes frivolous to the point of being baffling.

Let me highlight an issue I handled recently. This lady came in and handed a letter addressed to the branch manager. A complaint letter against an ex-colleague of mine to be exact. I can’t reproduce the letter in full here due to disclosure issues but the gist of it was,

1. The letter was drafted in english by a 3rd party, in the first paragraph, this third party explained that this person is illiterate and cannot read or write english or chinese so he/she is writing the letter on the behalf. With no fees charged. (personally, it struck me as odd that someone would actually mentioned he/she is not being paid a fee to write a letter. I would have thought not but the fact that the statement was included made me think otherwise instead.)
2. Customer had bought into a unit trust for X amount of money, which is about 60% of the what she had with our bank.(At point of investment) Claims she is unemployed, have no other sources of income, no other sources of funds and struggling to survive
3. Thought she invested in a fixed deposit with higher return and principal protection.
4. Claims she was told that she can get back the principal + interest after max of 2 years.
5. Wanted the bank to pay her back her principal + interest if she had placed the money in fixed deposits claiming mis-selling
6. Signed off with a thumbprint (as customer claims to be illiterate)

Now after reading the letter, most people would start to scream CHEATS! and things like BANKS ARE UNSCRUPULOUS! etc I don’t blame them. Its been played out too much by the media, and out of the fact that if you had lost or knew someone that lost money too, you end to blame or hear people blaming the banks, their RMs, their insurance agents, their friends who recommend them to investments etc… everyone, but themselves. I have honestly yet to hear anyone lamenting that “yes, it was my fault.. I was too greedy, I have learnt a valuable lesson” Personally, I have lost a huge chunk of my money in Unit trusts, stocks and shares, currency etc but I think of it as a learning lesson. I learnt now the importance of profit taking, cut loss mechanism, value investing, dollar cost average and many other valuable lessons. Yes, I paid dearly for these lessons, but it would put me in good stead for maybe the next 20-30 years, so its worth it in a perverse sort of way.

Anyway, I digress…

What I wanted to highlight was that, after this letter, the bank did its own investigation. As we all know by now, all investments have to be done in conjunction with a needs analysis. Based on the banks investigation, the following was found

1. Customer was listed as self employed in the documents, and a bizfile search listed her as sole director of a private limited company with X amount of paid up capital that is still in business.
2. Needs analysis showed that she declared having more than 5x her investment amount with other banks.
3. Was clearly written in both english and chinese that product is not capital protected
4. The best part – all her accounts, including her company’s account which happened to be with the bank as well, was operated by an english signature. There was even a handwritten letter from her few years back in ENGLISH, requesting for higher credit limit for her personal credit card.

Clearly, customer is aware of what she was getting into, but trying to wriggle out of it in whatever way she can, riding on the wave of ‘justice’.

I wondered if the bank can sue her for fraud…

Who exactly are the true victims or true villains??

The lines are blurred.