‘Why must 1MDB park RM4b in Singapore bank?’

PETALING JAYA: A veteran journalist today questioned the need for 1Malaysia Development Bhd to park RM4 billion in a small private bank in Singapore that has also suffered millions of dollars in losses, instead of repaying its debts to Maybank and RHB Capital.
Datuk A. Kadir Jasin, the former group editor-in-chief of The New Straits Times, said in his blog (The Scribe) that it is suspicious that 1MDB would choose BSI Bank Limited Singapore when government-linked firms like Khazanah Nasional Bhd and EPF normally placed their funds in large local and international banks.
"Keeping the money in Singapore is mysterious enough and keeping it with a private bank makes it suspicious," Kadir said.
"The money should have been brought home to pay its debts. Instead 1MDB 'borrowed' from tycoon T. Ananda Krishnan while denying media reports that it did so," he added.
Kadir also said that even if there was a billion-ringgit reason to park the RM4 billion in Singapore, "why not keep it in Maybank Singapore or with other well-known banks like Citibank, JP Morgan and HSB?"
BSI is a Lugano-based Swiss private bank.
Its latest financial account posted on its website showed that its suffered a loss of US$722 million (RM2.6 billion).