In 2016, an influential Agency Manager of Prudential Assurance Company Singapore orchestrated a mass exodus of over 200 agents to a competitor, Aviva Financial Advisors Pte Ltd. Prudential, in turn, sued the Agency Manager for up to S$2.5 billion in damages, in a high-profile case which attracted significant media attention in Singapore.
To provide greater clarity on the existing misconduct reporting requirements for representatives and broking staff, and enhance standards of investigations on misconduct, MAS will be revising the misconduct reporting regime. Further, to standardise industry practices on due diligence conducted on prospective representatives and broking staff, MAS will be mandating financial institutions to perform and respond to reference check requests, with a list of baseline mandatory information that must be obtained or provided in the reference check.
Over a year into the global pandemic, businesses have had to pivot to survive and adjust to new ways of conducting business. Now, more than ever, Asia Pacific business leaders are making the necessary strategic changes to meet the needs of a vastly changed business landscape — and deciding where legal expertise may be needed most to limit and manage disruption and soften risks. This report will delve into how businesses view rising protectionism, regulatory scrutiny and foreign investment restrictions, and how these views are directly impacting their supply chain strategies.
Our Asia Pacific Employment & Compensation Team is pleased to provide you with our first quarterly update for 2021 highlighting key employment law changes across the Asia Pacific region. Please feel free to visit our Building a New Workforce Reality and FutureWorks sites designed to guide global employers on how to future-proof your workforce and to stay competitive in innovating and revolutionizing your working practices.
Continuing our series of video chats on the Future of Disputes in Asia Pacific, we take a look at C&I trends and developments across the region. Mini vandePol, head of the Firm’s Asia Pacific Compliance & Investigations Group, and Georgie Farrant, head of Australia’s Dispute Resolution team, talk about global C&I trends that impact clients operating in Asia Pacific such as ESG, economic sanctions, anti-bribery/corruption developments and compliance programs.
On 15 April 2021, the Cyber Security Agency of the Singapore Computer Emergency Response Team issued an alert urging administrators of internet-connected devices to patch their systems immediately.
On 30 April 2021, the Health Sciences Authority Therapeutic Products Branch published its finalized guidance on the e-labeling of therapeutic products in Singapore. The new guidance is effective from 30 April 2021.
In the first episode, Nandakumar Ponniya, chair of the Asia Pacific Dispute Resolution Group, Cynthia Tang, head of the Hong Kong Dispute Resolution team, and Yoshiaki Muto, head of Tokyo’s Dispute Resolution team, discuss developments in commercial litigation around four key areas: (1) technology, (2) mediation, (3) international commercial courts, and (4) class actions in Asia Pacific.
Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry announced that on 9 April 2021, Singapore deposited its instrument of ratification with the Secretary-General of ASEAN and became the first country to complete the official process for ratification of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement.
Due to the strategic location and the business-friendly environment that Singapore offers, many multinational enterprise (MNE) groups have centralized operations in Singapore, and they often function as the global/regional headquarters (HQ) of the MNEs. With increasing focus on these structures and the associated transfer pricing arrangements (both domestically and overseas), the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) published an e-tax guide entitled “Transfer Pricing Guidelines Special Topic – Centralized Activities in Multinational Enterprise Groups” (“Guide”) on 19 March 2021 to provide administrative guidance on determining an arm’s length remuneration for centralized activities in Singapore.
In this alert, we discuss the Guide, and provide transfer pricing insights for HQs located in Singapore.