Singapore Law Blog

Singapore, 5 May 2004...The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) today issued regulations to set out the implementation details of the policy to separate financial and non-financial business of a bank, and to unwind cross-shareholdings within the local banking groups (i.e. the anti-commingling policy).
The regulations spell out the rules for determining whether stakes in non-financial businesses held indirectly by banks through their affiliates have to be divested, and give effect to the policy restricting cyclical shareholding arrangements within banking groups. The regulations also prescribe the limited forms of property-related activities that banks are permitted to engage in under the anti-commingling policy.

Under the regulations, stakes held by a bank's affiliated entities are deemed as stakes of the bank. These indirect stakes will be aggregated with the bank's own direct stake to determine whether the bank holds a major stake in an entity. Banks are not allowed to hold major stakes in non-financial businesses, and all such stakes have to be divested by the deadline set by MAS .

The press release and the regulations can be found at www.mas.gov.sg.