8/02/2009

Bravo, Great Eastern

If we want to know what is being responsible and trustworthy, look no further. The name is Great Eastern. As a follow up to the Lehman minibonds and Pinnacle notes debacle, Great Eastern has voluntary taken the step to payback every cent its clients paid for a similar product. This is quite embarrassing to the other renowned and reputable organisations that were involved in the fiasco and refused to compensate fully or compensating a pittance. The whole episode and the pathetic handling of the cases with consumers having to fight tooth and nail to claim back their losses said that there is an urgent need for a truly independent body to protect consumer interest. Unfortunately, with the overlapping of roles and interests, and personalities involved, such an organisation is practically impossible to find, not that it cannot be formed, but there is no political interest to have one. The web of being connected is amazing in this little dot. The minibond saga is like all the organisations are banded together on one side and the consumers, the little people, on one little miserable corner with a gungho maverick in the form of Tan Kin Lian as their defender. it is an ugly sight like in the Miserables.

2 comments:

Wally Buffet said...

This is a PR exercise costing $250 million plus. Wonder what the shareholders have to say about this.Also wonder whether this bold move is worth it as no amount of money can probably redeem the historical perception of buying life insurance products as "solid" investments for the future. It could just be the proverbial "flogging of a dead horse".

Buying a condo on the never never seems to be a better bet. You at least get to stay in it and enjoy it whilst seeing your asset appreciating when the population hits 8 million, maybe more. This is another reason why queues are present at condo launches. Not only is Temasek shifting its investment objectives, the ordinary man in the street is also wiser and shifting their spare cash in solid assets.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

GE is a maverick at work. but maverick can get kicked.