SINGAPORE - The information-sharing process between different agencies was among the key issues raised as MPs debated the move to halt German insurer Allianz’s planned offer for Singapore’s Income Insurance.
This included Allianz’s plans to return $1.85 billion in cash to shareholders within three years after the deal is completed. “I wonder if it is only me that finds it troubling that there was no coordinated discussion between the two major relevant regulators, MAS and MCCY, in advance of the proposed deal,” he said.Similarly, Progress Singapore Party Non-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai said he was “seriously concerned at the process by which we arrived at the conclusion to block the deal”.
In response, Second Finance Minister and MAS deputy chairman Chee Hong Tat said Mr Lim and Mr Leong had made “serious allegations” against public officers and government agencies and that it is unnecessary to throw them “under the bus”. He acknowledged that there is a difference in views between what NTUC and Income have put up and what the Government feels is the right way forward.