Judges in the Court of Appeal to decide if BNP Paribas has breached Singapore banking regulations
(Thomson Reuters ONE) -
Singapore, 11 May 2017 - Singapore's highest court will decide tomorrow morning,
Friday 12(th) May, whether investors should have the right to hold banks based
in Singapore to account. BNP Paribas are attempting to ignore Singapore's
banking regulations, with respect to a multi-billion dollar merger. The case
will set an important legal precedent regarding investor rights and the extent
to which multi-national banks can 'opt out' of Singaporean law.
Legal proceedings were brought by a number of BNP clients, including the
prominent Israeli-British businessman Jacob Agam, who questioned the validity of
BNP's bank's $16 billion merger with its Singapore arm, BNP Wealth Management.
The merger was invalid as two parts of BNP's business merged without seeking
prior consent from Singapore's main financial authorities - the High Court of
Singapore and the Singaporean Finance Minister. Permission from both authorities
has long been required under multiple sections of the Singapore Banking Act.
The case was first heard by the Singapore International Commercial Court on 17
February 2017, which upheld the controversial merger on the basis that BNP had
complied with French banking law, rather than the relevant Singaporean financial
regulations.
If Singapore's highest court, the Court of Appeal, decides to uphold the
contentious SICC decision this week, there will be significant ramifications for
Singapore's multi-trillion dollar financial services industry and for local as
well as foreign investors who hold assets with banks based in Singapore.
Mr. Agam commented "The Singapore authorities need to ensure that depositors and
investors, both locally and internationally, are protected when investing in
banks based in Singapore. There needs to be a dependable system of regulation in
Singapore. If the judiciary decide to uphold the SICC decision, they will be
telling the world that banks based in Singapore can ignore Singaporean law with
impunity, and will become the only country in the world where big banks can pick
and choose whether they will be regulated."
The appeal will be heard at 10:00AM SGT in the High Court of the Republic of
Singapore (Court of Appeal) by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, Judge of Appeal
Judith Prakash and Justice Dyson Heydon.
**ENDS**
For media enquiries, please contact:
Luke Chauveau, Bell Pottinger
lchauveau(at)bellpottinger.com
Nikhita Sethi, Bell Pottinger
nsethi(at)bellpottinger.com
This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.
The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.
Source: DiCello Levitt & Casey LLC via GlobeNewswire
Unternehmensinformation / Kurzprofil:
Datum: 11.05.2017 - 09:15 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 541786
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