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SINGAPORE: Singapore government statutory boards are not exposed to the structured products and credit notes linked to bankrupt US investment bank Lehman Brothers.
Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam told Parliament that none are holding the Lehman Minibonds, Pinnacle Series, DBS High Notes Five, Merill Lynch Jubilee Series products.
Mr Tharman said four statutory boards - the Civil Service College, Singapore Land Authority, Infocomm Development Authority and the Professional Engineers' Board - have invested in other credit-linked notes.
He said the notes suffered a 14 per cent paper loss this year, not very different from the recent global market performance.
The exposure of the four boards to such notes make up only 0.05 per cent of the total investment portfolios of all of Singapore's statutory boards.
Another statutory board, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, also has financial products linked to credit default swaps, but this makes up only 0.1 per cent of its portfolio.
According to a Finance Ministry spokesperson, the four statutory boards had positive returns on their overall investment portfolios this year, averaging about 2 per cent. For the past 3 years, the average annual return on their investment portfolios averaged 3 per cent.
Mr Tharman also said the government has advised all the statutory boards to maintain sound principles of diversification and risk management when investing.
- CNA/yt
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