SINGAPORE – The ultimate decision of amend the Insurance Act – which would prevent the implementation of the current form of the Allianz-Income agreement – ​​was taken by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong himself, in collaboration with the Cabinet.

Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam clarified the point in a Facebook post on November 6 after former NTUC Income managing director Tan Suee Chieh said in his own Facebook post that he had conveyed his comments on the proposed deal through Mr Shanmugam.

The government announced to parliament in October that the agreement between German insurer Allianz and Income Insurance in its current form, was canceled due to concerns about the structure of the transaction and the local insurer’s ability to pursue its social mission.

He then hastily passed an amendment to the insurance law to allow approval of the deal to be withheld. This paved the way for the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to consider points of view of the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) in future requests related to insurers that are cooperatives or related to them.

In a Facebook post on November 6, Mr Tan said that when the deal was made public in July, he had sought to engage MAS and NTUC, but neither had responded to his representations private or public. He had publicly criticized the deal on social media since it was announced.

In mid-August, he began contacting several senior government officials he had personally known during his career, Mr Tan said. Mr Shanmugam was a corporate lawyer at Prudential Singapore when Mr Tan was then managing director of the firm.

Mr Shanmugam spoke with him several times over two months, allowing him to clarify his views, Mr Tan said.

He added that he felt Mr Shanmugam “played a central role in the internal deliberations which ultimately led to the deal being terminated”.

Mr Shanmugam said on November 6 that Mr Tan may have overestimated his role and influence.

“The agreement and (Mr Tan’s) opinions on the agreement are beyond my jurisdiction. I was an intermediary, conveying his views to the relevant ministers,” he said.

He added that he told Mr Tan that while his views had been carefully considered, the government had a different view on many of the points he had raised, even though it had arrived at the same decision that the deal could not be concluded.

Mr Shanmugam also clarified two misperceptions about the deal’s termination that he had noted during wider discussions.