Don't Be Stupid

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Lately people have been going around slamming DBS for its choice of Christmas charity: Focus on the Family, said to be an extremist right-wing evangelical anti-women anti-gay anti-choice anti-premarital-sex establishment. How it manages to be anti so many things at the same time is anyone's guess, but I suspect it took lessons from my family.

These same people who are unhappy with DBS are suddenly bringing up all the bad press the bank has had in the last few months, including the High Notes saga and the massive retrenchments. I suspect they don't really know what they're talking about; they probably just read newspaper headlines and are now throwing everything together into a chapalang argument.

First I must say that I'm not a DBS fan. I have a couple of accounts with the bank, for convenience more than anything else. The company has bad customer service and dislikeable corp comms.

Still, I don't think they came off very badly in the whole High Notes fiasco. Yes, they were the only local bank to have issued Lehman-linked structured products, but when they did they were praised for being creative and keeping up with the times, unlike other "conservative" banks. It's only now, when the unthinkable has happened, that suddenly everyone needs a direction in which to point a finger. While other banks and brokerages may not have created their own products, they definitely distributed them just as happily. Mis-selling is the main issue here, and I don't think DBS engaged in more of it than anyone else. In fact, after the news broke about the structured products, DBS was the most upfront and transparent about the value of the products, and one of the quickest to move to compensate investors. It is untenable to single out DBS for more blame in this particular area than any other bank.

As for the retrenchments, I really don't know why anyone blames companies for retrenching people in bad times. Recessions are all about the survival of the fittest: weak firms are rightly weeded out, as are those who aren't pulling their weight within a company. Of course there are those who are unjustly retrenched because they're unpopular or unlucky and their bosses jump at the excuse to fire them. But I still see no reason why a company should take any flak for trimming the fat in order to survive. And DBS does look like it's gorged during the good times, so it only makes sense to go on a diet now. I do feel for the 900 people who were laid off, but chances are most were middling middle management who were getting paid more than they deserved.

Finally, the charity. Surely any company has the right to choose which charity it wants to support. I mean, if I hated animals and SingTel decided to donate money to SPCA, I wouldn't switch phone providers just because of that - as long as they continued to give me good service and not cut off my connection randomly to punish me for my anti-pet ways.

I am very skeptical that all these people who are against DBS' charity decision and have joined the facebook group/signed petition etc etc will really give up their DBS accounts. If they do, all respect to them. But if not, are they making empty noise and confusing issues just to draw attention to the fact that they're gay rights supporters? If so, why are they doing that? Surely there are better avenues to show support?

(Btw J, this is not about you at all - I've been hearing so much about this topic from a myriad of people that I need to vent for a while. I have every faith that you of all people would cut up your DBS cards. (: )

 posted by zyn :: 5:45 PM :: 14 Comments :: permalink


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