Inadequacies and evolution of Monetary Authority of Singapore through the lens of Pan-El crisis and collapse of Barings. (1970 – 1995)

• Main Author: Tham, Shawn Kin Siong
• Other Authors: Park Hyung Wook
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Humanities::History
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/137566
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This thesis illustrates the various inadequacies of Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and how MAS subsequently adapted and changed. It argues that MAS was not necessarily successful all the time. Crises that stemmed from poor crisis management, failure of self-regulation and insufficient regulations were inevitable, given how inexperienced MAS was. In doing so, this thesis hopes to shatter the extremely successful image of Singapore’s financial system, showing that it is not necessarily perfect in the past. Rather, it will serve to demonstrate that it was more of a product of trial and error on the path in becoming one of the most important financial hubs in the world. Similarly, despite its reputation for being very strict on regulations, MAS was not entirely strict all the time as seen in the Pan-El crisis and collapse of Barings. Due to the dearth of secondary literature on MAS itself, this thesis will fill the gap in Singapore’s economic and banking history. At the same time, this thesis is also relevant to the field of public policy in economics to have a better understanding of crises in the financial system and possibly avoid similar mistakes from happening again.