Shanmugam clarifies his role over the halting of Allianz-Income deal

He says decision to amend Insurance Act to halt deal made by PM Wong with Cabinet

- Goh Yan Han

The ultimate decision to amend the Insurance Act, which would prevent the current form of the Allianz-Income deal from going through, was made by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong himself, together with the Cabinet.

Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam clarified this in a Facebook post on Nov 6 after former NTUC Income chief executive Tan Suee Chieh, in his own Facebook post, said he had passed on his feedback on the proposed deal through Mr Shanmugam.

The Government announced in Parliament in October that the deal between German insurer Allianz and Income Insurance in its current form had been called off over concerns about the deal structure and the ability of the local insurer to continue its social mission.

It then rushed through an amendment to the Insurance Act to allow the approval of the deal to be withheld. This paved the way for the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to consider the views of the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) in future applications related to insurers that are cooperatives or are linked to them.

In a Facebook post on Nov 6, Mr Tan said that when the deal first became public in July, he sought to engage MAS and NTUC, but neither responded to his private or public approaches. He had been publicly critical of the deal on social media since it was first made known.