Saturday, October 07, 2006
[RealEdge] TodayOnline Forum : Be strict with banks
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| Be strict with banks Weekend ? October 7, 2006 Letter from wong yew wah I refer to Angeline Lee and Deepak Gurnani's letters, "First 'discounts', then, spiralling rates" (Oct 5). Friends/clients of mine and I have encountered similar situations. A friend bought a condominium apartment and got a loan three years ago from a local bank with the board rate at 6 per cent. It was a deferred payment scheme and hence, the loan disbursement was only when they got their TOP recently. Imagine their shock that the so-called "board rate" is now more than 8 per cent, when the bank's other published rate is only 6.5 per cent. The same thing happened to me and when I called the bank to voice my dissatisfaction, the answer was: Cost and interest rate went up so they have no choice but to raise the rate. In Australia, a Consumer Banking Act protects consumers against unfair treatment by banks. Unfortunately, there is none in Singapore yet and I wonder how long we have to wait. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has been strict with insurance companies, brokerage firms and other financial institutions, but seems more lenient towards banks. What the banks are doing now is, in my view, no different from how insurance advisers used to lure investors with promises of high investment returns, before MAS came up with guidelines to curb the practice. | |
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// posted by Shajahan @ 5:12 PM 