TSMP Law Corporation Joint Managing Partner Stefanie Yuen Thio was quoted in a Business Times story (paywall) published on 2 January 2020 that covered a working group’s review of the SGX retail bonds framework, whose key proposals include tightening admission criteria for retail bonds and introducing insurance coverage for bond issuers.

She thinks it is unfair to have credit-worthy issuers “underwrite” the professional fees for defaulting issuers. “That just ups the costs for everyone, and is an inefficient use of resources. Aren’t we better off educating ourselves on who are good quality issuers and investing in their bonds? Arm (retail investors) to make better assessments of investment risks. Corporate defaults cannot be totally avoided, but investors can make investment decisions based on a studied evaluation of the issuers.”