Investors told funds 'as safe as a bank'

Investors told funds 'as safe as a bank'
Investors in ING funds paralysed by the credit crunch say they were told the products were "just like a term deposit". The Banking Ombudsman is alerting investors in the funds that they can complain to her office about the way the products were sold to them. Many investors in the ING Regular Income and Diversified Yield Funds bought in on the advice of their ANZ financial advisers. ING is 49 per cent owned by ANZ. Around 8000 investors with $521 million in the funds are now unable to access their money after investment manager ING indefinitely suspended withdrawals from the funds two weeks ago citing the effects of the international credit crisis. The funds, largely based on CDOs and CLOs - complex financial products which bundle various types of debt into a security - had lost significant value because of the severe lack of liquidity in the credit markets.

First of all, respects where respects are due, it was the NBR who broke this unbelievable story, and the Herald NEVER credits where a story is broken which is childish beyond belief – to the story, how outrageous is this? ING is half owned by ANZ and ANZ was promoting this highly questionable financial product to it’s customers as just like a bank account, except it was nothing like a bank account, it was in fact anchored to that albatross of the global financial world, sub-prime mortgages, how would you feel being told when you went to withdraw your money from what has been sold to you as a ‘bank account’ only to be told, oops, sorry, we invested it in all this questionable debt to security equation that very few people even understand, you can’t take out your money cause it ain’t there anymore. Oh and how about that toothless wonder Liz Brown, the so called Banking Ombudsman, who in reality is a mouthpiece for the banks and appointed by the industry to represent their interests, not the banking public, what’s her advice? “See your bank first and wait for three months”, great advice there Liz, did you break a sweat coming up with that honey? Where is the Serious Fraud Office when you need them, oh and the final irony, ING are still advertising on TV telling us how wonderful they are.