Minister rules out ING investors' pleas to intervene

Commerce Minister Simon Power says he is keeping a close eye on the time it is taking to investigate ING's frozen funds but will not be stepping in to stop ING's proposal from going ahead.

Investors and financial advisers have written to Power, Finance Minister Bill English and Prime Minister John Key pleading for the Government's intervention.

The ING Regular Income Fund (RIF) and Diversified Yield Fund (DYF) were frozen in March last year, stopping more than 13,000 investors from taking their money out. Investors have since watched the value of the funds' unit drop from around 80c to just 20c.

ING and its 49 per cent shareholder ANZ have come up with a settlement offer to buy the units for 60c a DYF unit and 62c an RIF unit but investors who accept it must sign away their rights to make claims or take or benefit from legal action.

Investors must decide whether to accept the offer by July 13 but will have to decide without knowing if further compensation could be possible through a Commerce Commission investigation into both ING and ANZ over the possible misselling of the funds.

In a letter to Power one investor said it was "nonsense" that the commission could not make a finding in the eight months it had been investigating and called on the Government to step in to stop the proposal going ahead.

"We ... request you as a minister and Government alone or with the Commerce Commission to intervene before July 13, if only to compel ING to withdraw their attempt to circumvent their investors' lawful right to pursue recovery of their savings free of ING's self-imposed penalty and time limit."

Yesterday Power said he was aware of the proposal but steps were already being taken by appropriate regulatory agencies.

"The Commerce Commission is investigating the sale, promotion and marketing of ING's Diversified Yield Fund and Regular Income Fund [and] the Securities Commission is assisting them ... I will be keeping a close eye on the time frames of the work being done."

He repeated advice from the Commerce and Securities Commissions for investors to consider the details of the offer carefully and get professional advice.