Court dismisses claims against Standard Chartered, BSI over 1MDB deals

It rules Singapore’s insolvency regime cannot apply to pre-2017 transactions.

The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by foreign liquidators seeking to pursue recovery claims against Standard Chartered Bank and BSI Bank over transactions allegedly linked to 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

The court held that the foreign liquidators could not bring statutory avoidance claims under Singapore’s cross-border insolvency regime for transactions that took place before the framework was adopted in 2017.

Singapore incorporated the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency into domestic legislation in 2017.

The court ruled that the provisions allowing foreign representatives to pursue certain recovery actions in the country do not apply retroactively to earlier transactions.

As a result, the liquidators lacked standing to bring the claims in Singapore under the Model Law framework.

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