International Herald Tribune, 11 Oct 2008, The Associated Press
SINGAPORE: Hundreds of distraught Singaporean investors flooded a park Saturday to express their anguish at losses from structured notes issued by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. that they say were sold to them by banks as safe investments.
Among the crowd that gathered were retired, middle class and working class investors who told a similar story. During the past few years as their other fixed-income instruments matured local bank officials pushed a 5 to 7-year bond that would yield about 5 percent, higher than the 0.5 percent interest rate banks pay on checking or savings account deposits.
"This wasn't some pyramid scheme, or so we were led to believe," said Lawrence Chin, a 62-year-old retired salesman who invested 50,000 Singapore dollars (US$33,760) in the bonds in 2006.
"Now they say they're toxic. I never knew a bond could be toxic," said Chin.
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