Missold Chinese Exotic Notes Risk $4 Billion Loss for Koreans

Park Soon Ja spent five decades working as a cleaner to build her life savings. Now, more than half of her 660 million won ($480,000) has been lost after the South Korean retiree invested in a structured product so complex a regulator said even the bankers who sold it struggled to understand how it works.

The 75-year-old is one of hundreds of thousands of South Koreans who were sold equity-linked securities tied to the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index — a gauge of Chinese stocks listed in Hong Kong — by some of the nation’s most prominent lenders and brokerages. ...