THE most lamentable aspect of the sorry tale of Standard Chartered Securities and Standard Chartered Asia - and there are many lamentable aspects - is the fundamental dishonesty of all involved.
This, remember, was part of Standard Chartered Bank - one of the territory's two banknote issuers.
Yet the securities dealers were essentially pocketing the money of customers by failing to provide the best deals available and instead taking the extra cash themselves - a practise not surprisingly known as ''rat trading''.
Apparently, one dealer involved who informed management of the malpractices, was ignored. That, of course, is by his own account, but how much trust can the public now put in such a devalued coin? Certainly not the betrayed investors who subscribed to the company shares sponsored by Standard Chartered Asia.
Every client of Standard Chartered Securities over the past three years must now be asking himself: ''Did I get the best deal?'' Some will presumably check to find the day's trading range on the occasions that Standard Chartered made deals on their behalf.
And if Standard Chartered did not seem to sell at the top of the day or buy at the bottom, those clients may well consider taking legal advice.
The problem is that many will never know whether or not they were victims of the rat traders.