New York | London

Keynote Address by Mr. Heng Swee Keat, Managing Director, Monetary Authority of Singapore at the 2009 Asian Investors’ Corporate Governance Conference
Introduction
1. Good morning.  I am very happy to join you today at this inaugural Asian Investors’ Corporate Governance Conference.  Thank you for inviting me to speak at this event.
2. I congratulate SIAS and your partners [...]

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has issued the revised Property Funds Appendix within the Code of Collective Investment Schemes. Under the revised Appendix, REITs will be required to hold Annual General Meetings (AGMs) once every calendar year and not more than 15 months from the last preceding AGM, with effect from 1 January 2010. MAS [...]

MAS Economic Policy Department released its biannual Macroeconomic Review. Highlight from the review are below:
After experiencing its deepest recession since independence, the Singapore economy registered two quarters of double-digit sequential expansion and appears to be in its recovery phase. This was driven, in part, by the easing of global financial conditions and a reversal of [...]

The Monetary Authority of Singapore signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Qatar Central Bank, which provides a formal basis for supervisory cooperation and technical assistance between the two parties. This comes as Qatari banks are expanding their presence in Singapore.

Guidelines emphasize responsibilities of the Board and Senior Management of financial institutions to deliver fair dealing outcomes when providing financial advisory services to customers. They are to be read together with the Financial Advisers Act. They apply to the selection, marketing, and distribution of investment products, to the provision of advice for these products, and [...]

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, which purports to pave the way for information sharing between the two central banks and to strengthen the supervision of financial institutions under their purview.

MAS will implement revised measures to further mitigate the risks of over-borrowing by individuals. It is a matter of social policy in Singapore that individuals be limited in the amount they can barrow based upon their income and age. Financial institutions are responsible for upholding these limits and conducting extensive credit checks on their customers.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the BaFin, the German financial supervisory authority, which provides a formal basis for information sharing and supervisory cooperation.