money 쐽 THE STRAITS TIMES THURSDAY, JULY 16 2009 PAGE B17

in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second

Citi ‘best bank
Women urged Minister for Finance and Transport Lim
Hwee Hua, Senior Minister of State for
National Development and Education
Grace Fu, and Mrs S R Nathan.
Yesterday’s briefing pointed to some
in Singapore’

to shoot
of the issues that will be addressed at the
forum, known as the Women Leaders’
Network (WLN) Meeting.
SingTel chief executive Chua Sock
Koong, one of Singapore’s most promi-
nent woman CEOs, said there are no barri-
CITIBANK has been named best bank
in Singapore and Asia by leading fi-
nance magazine Euromoney.
Despite floundering in the United
States with multi-billion-dollar loss-
es, Citi’s arm here was “cementing its

for CEO posts
They can thrive in
banking and finance
sectors, says minister
BY JESSICA CHEAM
WOMEN feature prominently in small
and medium-sized enterprises, but they
can shoot higher for the chief executive’s
job in bigger firms, said Minister of State
for Community Development, Youth and
Sports Yu-Foo Yee Shoon yesterday.
“We want to see more women as
CEOs,” she said, adding that they should
play an active role, even in multinational
companies.
The minister told a briefing, for a con-
ference to be held here next month, that
banking and finance are sectors in which
women can thrive, especially in the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(Apec) region.
But even as women pursue careers, it
is important for them to fulfil their famil-
ial roles and this is where information
and communications technology (ICT)
can give a helping hand, she added.
“Women should embrace IT to help
them communicate with the workplace,
even if they have to stay at home,” said
Mrs Yu-Foo.
Issues such as women in businesses
and their role in an increasingly ICT-cen-
tred world are just two of the topics that
will be tackled at a forum next month in
the lead-up to the Apec meeting here in
November.
Women leaders in business and other
fields from around the globe will be at-
tending the event, an annual platform for
promoting the participation of women in
economic and trade-related activities.
“This meeting will enable women lead-
ers in the Apec region to network and
share with each other their insights and
Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon said IT can help women
fulfil their multiple roles. PHOTO: MCYS
experiences in the various sectors of their
respective economy,” said Mrs Yu-Foo,
who was speaking at the pre-event brief-
ing.
The minister cited five areas for discus-
sion: sustainable development; women in
business; women in knowledge economy;
women in tripartism and social enter-
prise; and work-life harmony.
The forum at the Raffles City Conven-
tion Centre will form policy recommenda-
tions that will be presented to the main
Apec ministerial meetings for considera-
tion.
Visiting delegates will also get a dose
of local hospitality during the event on
Aug 4 and 5.
Lunches and dinners will be hosted by
a range of notable women, including Sin-
gapore’s first woman minister, Minister
ers for women to achieve the same posi-
tions as men in the workplace.
“In this global war for talent, no coun-
try or organisation can afford to ignore
the female population,” said Ms Chua,
who will chair the WLN meeting.
SingTel, for example, has flexible work-
ing arrangements for female executives
who have family obligations, she said.
Mrs Yu-Foo also pointed to ways that
women might fulfil their multiple roles at
work and at home, including using ICT.
Walking the talk, she announced at the
briefing yesterday that ICT will be em-
ployed to link delegates from South Korea
to the event by video-conferencing for
part of the forum.
It will be a first for the event, and will
enable female staff and students of Sook-
myung Women’s University to listen and
interact with the forum in real time.
In addition to the WLN event, Singa-
pore will host a separate Apec digital fo-
rum for women on Aug 3, which hopes to
enhance the role of women in the ICT sec-
tor.
The first WLN meeting was held in Ma-
nila in 1996. It is hosted each year by the
country hosting the Apec summit.
jcheam@sph.com.sg
position as a head-on competitor to
Singapore’s domestic banks”, said Eu-
romoney in its awards citation.
Euromoney praised the bank’s sig-
nificant progress in retail. Tie-ups
such as those with SMRT and Exxon
Mobil service stations have allowed it
to expand its presence rapidly and
made it “as recognisable locally as
many Singaporean institutions”.
It has also emerged as the credit
card market leader, with one in two eli-
gible cardholders in Singapore holding
a Citibank credit card.
With a staff base of over 8,000, it
also employs more than any other
bank in Singapore, noted Euromoney.
Citi Singapore country head Jonath-
an Larsen said: “We will continue to in-
vest in our Singapore franchise and
grow our market share in consumer
banking, corporate and investment
banking, treasury and transaction serv-
ices.”
DBS Bank picked up an award for
best debt house in Singapore because
of the “strength and depth of its fran-
chise across bonds and syndicated
lending”. JP Morgan was named Singa-
pore’s top equity house and Credit Su-
isse was the Republic’s best merger
and acquisition house.

Muis panel will continue to

develop fatwas for guidance
BY MELISSA TAN
RELIGIOUS opinions on complex legal issues will
continue to be issued to Muslims by the legal
committee of the Islamic Religious Council of
Singapore (Muis), said Minister-in-charge of
Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim.
Speaking at an estate planning seminar yester-
day, Dr Yaacob said that the Fatwa Committee
would “continue to develop fatwas that are
beneficial to the community, to provide guidance
and clarity on complex issues”.
But he said that the committee would “try to mini-
mise any gaps or perceived contradictions between
civil law and Muslim law”, adding that “institutions
had to evolve as the environment changed”.
Despite not being legally binding, fatwas are
adhered to by many Muslims, even when the rulings
are in conflict with secular law.
Civil law dictates that if a couple owns a flat in
joint tenancy and the husband dies, the wife gets full
ownership. However, until April last year, fatwas
stated that the wife got half of the flat, with the rest
going to the dead man’s beneficiaries such as his
children and siblings.
This often resulted in the wife being left with no
roof over her head, if she was pressured by the other
beneficiaries to sell the flat so as to split the
proceeds.
In April this year, a man brought a High Court
case against his sister-in-law to claim a share of her
late husband’s property under a Muis-issued fatwa.
The High Court dismissed his claim.
Ustaz Nazirudin Mohd Nasir from the Office of
the Mufti told The Straits Times that Muis had
updated its fatwa on joint tenancy last year and it
would soon be available on Muis’ website.
According to this new fatwa, Muslim joint
tenants can now use various Islamic legal routes to
stipulate that their share of the property be given
fully to the surviving tenant, should one of them
die.
“Muis will continuously review all its existing
rulings to ensure that there are solutions and
options for Muslims,” Ustaz Nazirudin said.
And Dr Yaacob said at the seminar, organised by
the Muslim Financial Planning Association and legal
and business information provider LexisNexis, that
even without such changes, conflicting legal sys-
tems did not have to divide families.
“There is nothing to prevent a son or a daughter
from returning their share to their widowed mother,
who may need the money more,” said Dr Yaacob,
also Minister for the Environment and Water Re-
sources.
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