I am amazed by the prime minister's reaction to Hong Leong Bank's publication of a list of public companies that the latter is not prepared to accept as security for its margin lending.

I am sure any financial institution would have a list of factors which it would employ to decide on whether to provide margin lending facilities to listed companies. Any decision on who is in or who is out would have been reached after due and careful consideration.

The strong performance of a company today is not an indication that it will perform similarly in the future. Therefore, a detailed analysis of the company's fundamentals would be most beneficial to the investing public who normally would not have the resources or the capacity to undertake such a task.

We should, in fact, encourage all lending institutions to follow Hong Leong Banks's footsteps. It is the responsibility of the lending institutions and share analysts to make public the results of their financial analysis involving various public-listed companies.

With this information available, investors would be able to make a more informed investment decision. Hong Leong Bank should be applauded for what it has done.