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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has today (July 31) referred to the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) 19 cases involving complaints of alleged misconduct in respect of investment products related to Lehman Brothers to facilitate its investigations into banks. Since October 17, 2008, the HKMA has referred a total of 501 Lehman-Brothers-related cases to the SFC.
"After the introduction of the Minibonds Repurchase Scheme, the HKMA has focused its staff resources on the handling of other Lehman-related cases (such as ELNs, Constellation Notes and Octave Notes). All 19 cases referred this week fall into these categories," said by an HKMA spokesperson.
The HKMA has, up to July 30, 2009, received 21,587 complaints concerning Lehman-Brothers-related products, of which 21,242 complaints have gone through the preliminary assessment process. As a result of the assessment, the HKMA is currently investigating 6,256 cases and seeking further information on 12,153 cases. A total of 1,903 complaints have been closed as there was not sufficient prima facie evidence found after the preliminary assessment process or no sufficient grounds and evidence found after the detailed investigation (A table summarising the complaints received so far is attached). "The closure of these cases will not affect the top-down investigations being undertaken by the SFC at the bank level," the HKMA spokesman said.
For further enquiries, please contact:
Hing-fung Wong, Manager (Communications), at 2878 1802 or
Natalie Wu, Officer (Communications), at 2878 8246
Ends/Friday, July 31, 2009
Issued at HKT 18:09
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