Parliament passes Bill enabling Govt to block Allianz-Income deal

The minister in charge of Singapore's financial regulator will have powers to block deals involving insurers that are run or substantially owned by cooperatives after Parliament passed new laws on Oct 16.

- Angela Tan

After about four hours of debate, the House passed the Insurance (Amendment) Bill, which will allow the Government to halt German insurer Allianz's planned offer to take a controlling stake in Income Insurance. Income's majority shareholder - NTUC Enterprise - is a cooperative.

The move paves the way for the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to consider the views of the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) when an application for regulatory approval involves an insurer that is either a cooperative or linked to one. There is currently no legal provision for the authority to do so in such cases.

Income had taken on the assets of Income Co-operative when it became a company in 2022, and NTUC Enterprise has a 72.8 per cent stake in the insurer.

The changes will allow the minister in charge of MAS to withhold approval of applications involving insurers like Income if he considers that it is in the public interest to do so. There will be no avenue for appeals when this happens.

Presenting the Bill for debate on Oct 16, MAS deputy chairman and Second Minister for Finance Chee Hong Tat said: "We are making the amendments on an urgent basis because the proposed transaction is under active consideration by Income's shareholders."

Mr Chee noted that Income is now a corporate entity, and no longer subject to regulations that govern cooperatives.

Sixteen backbench MPs spoke on the Bill, with many - including Mr Liang Eng Hwa (Bukit Panjang), Mr Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang) and Nominated MP Mark Lee - raising concerns about whether blocking the Allianz-Income deal would damage Singapore's reputation as a global centre that is pro-business and welcomes foreign investments.