Category Archives: Banking and Finance

Islamic Wealth Management: Prospects, Challenges, and the Case of Singapore

Banking and Finance, Islamic Law

Islamic finance is currently a multi-billion dollar industry and has the potential to grow considerably bigger. Some commentators have noted that while the amount of money that could be available to be placed in Islamic wealth management structures in significant, the industry has not been able to absorb all this potential investment. This post discusses our article recently published in the Capital Markets Law Journal, and which is situated in this context.

Illegal Wildlife Trade: The Critical Role of the Banking Sector in Combating Money Laundering

Banking and Finance

During the past two decades or so, the sale of illegally harvested wildlife or derivatives thereof, commonly referred to as illegal wildlife trade (IWT), has developed into a highly profitable organised crime, with the World Economic Forum estimating an annual generation of approximately USD 20 billion in proceeds from wildlife products. The increasing demand for wildlife products such as pelts, ivory, furs, wildlife-based medicines and exotic pets poses major consequences for the international financial system. It also threatens biodiversity, enables corruption and increases public health risks such as the spread of zoonotic diseases which are transmitted from animals to humans. This widespread impact illustrates the seriousness of IWT.

A bank’s duty to question payment instructions, aka the Quincecare duty

Banking and Finance, Contract Law

Payment scams are rife. A particularly prevalent form is the authorized push payment (APP) scam. These payments are authorized by a bank customer after falling for a third party’s deceit, which may take many different forms, including fake investment opportunities, impersonation of figures such as bank officers and the police, and diverting an intended payment into the scammer’s account. Because these payments are authorized by the customer, the bank has a valid authority (mandate) to pay and must ordinarily make the payment. Authorized payment scams can be contrasted with unauthorized payments which do not originate from the customer and therefore involve forgery. In such cases, a bank has no authority to pay and at common law will bear the loss, although this is subject to contract terms allocating the loss to the customer. Most authorized payment scams are push payments which means that the payment instruction is sent by the payer to their bank. Examples are payments by mobile phone or home computer. By contrast, pull payment instructions are given by the payer to the payee who initiates the payment process through their own bank. Examples are cheques or direct debits. Pull payments are less prone to authorized payment scams, hence the focus on push payments.

IPOs and Equity Valuations in Singapore

Banking and Finance, Corporate Law

Recently, there has been much discussion in Singapore about the dearth of initial public offerings (‘IPOs’) and undervaluation of the share prices of many listed companies on the Singapore Exchange. Committees have been set up to address this issue. Some reasons have been postulated and good solutions have been provided. But there may be fundamental structural issues that are harder to resolve.

Why Singapore Needs a Digital Dollar

Banking and Finance

The increasing popularity of digital tokens has raised concerns among central banks worldwide, leading them to explore the concept of a digital version of central bank money. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is no exception, and it has been actively studying the potential benefits and risks associated with a digital version of the Singapore dollar (digital SGD). My article published in the Banking and Finance Law Review (volume 39, page 381) delves into the potential impact of a digital SGD on the public’s choices for store of value and conducting payment transactions, the funding model of the banking industry, and the monetary policy operations of MAS. It revisits fundamental topics such as the existing types of official money, bank funding models, central banks’ authority to issue banknotes, and the concept of legal tender while discussing the changes that a digital SGD would bring. The conclusion is that introducing a digital SGD would yield net positive effects, encouraging MAS to modernize its currency system to align with the evolving digital landscape in financial markets.

Shareholder Engagement in East Asia

Banking and Finance, Corporate Law

Little has been written in the legal literature about hedge fund activism in major East Asian markets. To fill this literature gap, my chapter entitled ‘Shareholder Engagement in East Asia’, forthcoming in Board-Shareholder Dialogue: Policy Debate, Legal Constraints and Best Practices (Luca Enriques and Giovanni Strampelli eds, Cambridge University Press), aims to take an empirical and comparative approach to examining hedge fund activism in the three major East Asian markets of mainland China, South Korea and Japan.

From Protecting Bank Customers and Creditors to Finding a Mechanism for Corporate Sustainability

Banking and Finance, Corporate Law, Equity and Trusts, ,

This blogpost combines two recent research pieces about how regulation and private law can find a meeting point in the proper purpose rule in company law/equity which could underpin entity and individual duties to take into account considerations external to the relationship which gives rise to such duties.