Complaint Review: Standard Chartered Bank

I am an old-age pensioner living alone. I deposited my life savings of over $300,000 in Standard Chartered Bank.

A year and a half or so later I discovered that my money was missing. I found that the bank traded in investment funds with my money. The bank took nearly $160,000 in fees and over $50,000 in interest and lost the rest.

I dealt with only one person at the bank from the time of opening the account, known as a relationship manager. He asked me to sign many forms. I trusted him completely and did whatever he told me. I was a simple housewife who knew nothing whatsoever about investing, and had only ever held savings accounts.

The relationship manager took out massive loans and bought and sold the same investment funds repeatedly charging huge bank fees each time. He acted contrary to the bank's own guidelines that an investment fund be held for many years.

The bank has refused to refund my money and says that I gave all the trading instructions to the bank. They say that the bank officer was not involved, other than submitting my instructions.

The bank's defence is nonsensical as no sane person would buy and sell the same investments repeatedly at a loss in a relatively short period of time so as to burn their capital through enormous fees.

Standard Chartered Bank has taken my life savings. Now, in the latter part of my life, I have to depend on relatives and friends.

I am petitioning Standard Chartered Bank to return my money