Email to Respondents 16/03/09
Dear fellow Coutts customer
You very kindly responded to my campaign aimed at bringing Coutts to account, and I thought it might be helpful to give you an update on progress.
As you know I ran an advertising campaign in December to help establish who else had been persuaded by Coutts to invest in AIG Life Premier Bonds.
I have received hundreds of emails as a result of the campaign.
It has been impossible for me to respond individually, but I am grateful to everyone who made contact.
Broadly, the responses fall into four categories: (i) Coutts customers who invested in AIG Life Premier Bonds, (ii) Customers who invested in AIG Life Premier Bonds via another bank or financial advisor, (iii) Coutts customers who received poor advice relating to other investments, and (iv) Individuals and companies that offered their help.
Via the Coutts AIG Action Group website, I also asked Coutts customers who had, like me, been persuaded to invest money in AIG Life Premier Bonds to fill out a detailed questionnaire. These questionnaires have also now been analysed. I will shortly post a summary of the findings on the website.
I have retained legal and other advisers to help me with the campaign. Our investigation seeks to establish the following:
- During the 12 months leading up to the collapse of AIG, did Coutts know or should they have known about the financial stability of AIG?
- Were AIG Life Premier Bonds (and the AIG Enhanced Fund into which monies were subsequently placed) an appropriate investment for customers wishing to protect their capital, particularly as this product was sold as a low-risk alternative to deposit accounts?
- Were Coutts aware or should have been aware that the underlying mix of securities held in the AIG Enhanced Fund had changed since its inception?
- During 2008 did Coutts know or should they have known that the financial stability of AIG was deteriorating?
- Why were Coutts' private bankers and investment advisors promoting AIG so aggressively, and what was the commission structure in place at Coutts?
- Why did Coutts continue to advise clients to keep their money in the AIG Enhanced Fund, in the face of mounting customer concerns, and why did Coutts continue to sell this product in the weeks immediately prior to the collapse of AIG?
There are clearly many other questions that need answers and the investigation will continue until we understand exactly what happened.
In terms of next steps, I will be pursuing a number of actions over the next few weeks. Among these, I will be approaching other Coutts customers to see whether they have suffered similar experiences to my own. If you are aware of such people, I would be grateful if you would contact me via keith.mills@couttsaigactiongroup.org
The purpose of these actions is to persuade Coutts/RBS that it is in their best interests to reach a settlement with their customers with regard to the disastrous recommendations and advice that they gave relating to the AIG Life Premier Bond.
If Coutts really wants to retain its position as a leading private bank it needs to understand that a long and progressively public legal and publicity campaign can only damage the bank's reputation.
Thank you again for your support. I hope that my efforts will ultimately benefit the many people that have been caught by this unfortunate situation.
Yours sincerely
Sir Keith Mills