Working in a bank has certain privileges and one of them including getting access to financial news before the others. I heard about problems with AIG on Monday morning, along with Merill Lynch getting sold to the Bank of America (with Temasek Holdings allegedly making some US$5 a share or so on paper value from that) and Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy.
Sadly, while I have such news about the turmoils in the financial market, the shortcoming is that I become completely blind as far as local news is concerned. I didn’t know there was a long queue of concerned policy owners down at AIA branches today even though I am pondering if I should start liquidating some of my investment plans to save whatever that’s left of my investments.
When I reached home today, I found this in my mailbox from my agent – an attempt to do some damage control to the situation.
Dear policy holder,
AIA assures all policyholders that it is able to meet all the obligations to policyholders. We would like to refer you to three articles published today in The Straits Times, Business Times and Lianhe Zaobao.
Quoted from The Straits Times
“When Contacted, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said yesterday that AIA Singapore is required under the Insurance Act and Regulations to maintain sufficient financial resources to meet all its liabilities to policyholders at all times. AIA currently meets these regulatory requirements. MAS will continue to monitor the financial position of AIA”
Quoted from The Business Times
” In Singapore, BT understands that AIA , as with other insurers here, maintains separate insurance funds for policies. Any sub-prime losses that may be borne by AIG at the group level are understood to have no impact on Singapore policyholders.”
While it is all good that the MAS has assured us that our investments are safe, and in spite of the fact that I worked in a bank, I wondered if that the MAS has real time monitoring over AIA financial status to be sure that AIA could pay up if they are required to liquidate their assets to pay us all. The reason of my concern is that in spite of MAS stringent requirements, Mitsui Oil (Asia) Pte. Ltd still managed to lose $81 million when a 35-year-old trader had falsified data since spring to cover up the losses.
Being complete clueless as to how these regulatory requirements are enforced, I wondered if MAS has now already moving in to audit AIA Singapore. Otherwise, with what can we be assured that everything will be alright? Thus I am two-minded as to what I should do about my policies. On one hand, I felt that if I start cashing out, then it would make AIA’s collapse a self-fulfilling prophecy, since when enough people withdraw their money, then it is possible that AIA would suffer some cash-flow issues. On the other hand, I am unwilling to risk what I have remaining in there, with the possibility of losing even more and even all of my money in these investments.
I think all I can do now is pray to God that the MAS’ assurance will be good.
Included: * Newspaper cutting from Zaobao
Some of us in the media socialist have been working on a proposal for AIMS. Check this out. And do give your comments directly to AIMS at their site.
http://theory.isthereason.com/?p=2320
Then, there also appears to be very encouraging signals coming from others who usually only talk to their own kind and refuse to talk to anyone else.
From what I see. I too may begin parachuting diplomats into the real world to also offer their expertize and know how. See here at ending part.
http://dotseng.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/darth-vader-is-in-the-mood-for-love-a-study-in-the-art-of-aims-part-1/
So it seems AIMS may be doing a great job after all.
gigi
Withdraw some investments and re-invest it to other companys? Never put all eggs into one basket.