Brunei's Local News - Brudirect.com

Bandar Seri Begawan - Market worldwide may be down but for the careful investor, there's a way of to safeguard investments despite the challenging environment, participants to a forum on "Seizing opportunities in challenging times" yesterday heard.

Wong Chin Loon, senior manager in Standard Chartered Bank's Group Wealth Management, said that lack of trust and confidence caused the financial crisis, as investors' confidence - or lack of - can cause market values to rise or depreciate.

But he said clients can still continue investing at a reasonable investment cost, through periodic contribution.

They also need to review institution holdings to ensure that the quality of investments is not deteriorating, he said.

He also stressed on the importance of reviewing

asset allocation to ensure portfolio risk is within one's risk tolerance.

Acknowledging the current financial crisis is the worst since the Great Depression in the 1930s, Alvin Liew of Standard Chartered Bank said that the crisis was not only about liquidity problems but also solvency issues, or the ability of a corporation to meet its longterm fixed expenses and to accomplish long-term expansion and growth.

Liew, an economist with SCB's Global Research team based in Singapore, remarked that over the week, some markets suffered losses, while some were not even opened for trading.

He further touched on how economic financial stability may not lead to economic growth.

He said that the weak economic growth is likely to spread from the West to East. However, the inflationary pressure was to be less of a concern, with the overall investor risk aversion likely to remain fragile.

Samir Dixit, senior manager of Singapore-based Group Brand Development at Standard Chartered, touched on the importance of branding during the forum.

A good financial brand should be there for both good and bad times, said Samir, adding that one must be a part of the community to be a good financial institution.

"A brand is an experience. It takes time to evolve and develop loyalty," he added. For a brand to remain relevant to people, the brand must gain new perspectives. It needs to have customers' view, which will help customers make a choice," he said.

"It takes a customer 2.6 seconds before making up their mind whether to purchase a product or not," he added.

The forum was organised by Universiti Brunei Darussalam, which also saw visiting Lord Mayor of London Alderman David Lewis giving a keynote address. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times