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28 Asia Pac. L. Rev. 1 (2020)

handle is hein.journals/asiaplwre28 and id is 1 raw text is: ASIA PACIFIC LAW REVIEW Routledge 2020, VOL. 28, NO. 1, 1-25 https://doi.org/10.1080/10192557.2020.1786249 Taylor & Francis Group Customer claims in financial services contracts in Singapore: enhancing common law rights with statutory protection Dora Neo Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, Singapore ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY The Global Financial Crisis of 2008 (GFC) drew attention to the Received 27 November 2019 importance of customer protection in financial services contracts. Accepted 23 March 2020 In Singapore, customers who lost money in the GFC have not been KEYWORDS very successful in suing financial institutions under the common financial services contracts in law. This is due, in part, to tightly drafted contracts and clauses Singapore; customer claims designed to protect the interests of financial institutions, such as against banks; non-reliance non-reliance clauses, which might also affect rights in tort and clause; mis-selling financial equity. The principle of freedom of contract means that there is products; statutory right to limited policing of contractual clauses by the courts, the chief damages control in Singapore being the test of reasonableness under the Unfair Contract Terms Act. Post-GFC, customers have been given enhanced statutory rights to sue financial institutions for damages under the existing Financial Advisers Act, as well as private law rights of action under the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act, which had previously not applied to financial transactions. This article examines the strength of the customer's legal position in a claim against a financial institution under common law and statute, and assesses the extent to which the new statutory rights potentially improve the customer's position. 1. Introduction The Global Financial Crisis of 2008 (GFC) drew worldwide attention to the importance of customer protection in financial services contracts. The number of cases in Singapore involving claims by customers against financial institutions increased after the GFC, although the number remains relatively modest.' In the immediate aftermath of the GFC, this was largely due to the fact that many cases were settled or resolved without the need for litigation, as a result of the active role played by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in encouraging and facilitating this process? For a customer to succeed in a common law claim, she must typically show that there was a contractual, tortious or fiduciary duty, that this duty was CONTACT Dora Neo ® doraneo@nus.edu.sg Q Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore 1 This conclusion was reached by studying cases that are searchable on the LAWNET database of the Singapore Academy of Law. LA WNET covers, inter alia, the Singapore Law Reports from 2010, the Singapore Law Report Reissue from 1965 to 2009 and the written judgments of the Singapore judiciary (Supreme Court and State Courts) from 1991. When this article refers to 'judicial decisions' or 'cases before the Singapore courts' or other similar phrases, it is only in reference to the cases which are available on LAWNET. 2 For details of MAS' facilitation of the claims process, see MAS, 'Opening Remarks by Heng Swee Keat, Managing Director, MAS, at the MAS Press Conference on the Sale of Structured Products to Retail Investors' (17 October 2008), available online at the MAS website. © 2020 School of Law, City University of Hong Kong

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