MAS appoints finance minister Lawrence Wong as deputy chair of its board

SINGAPORE – Finance Minister Lawrence Wong has been appointed deputy chairman of the central bank’s board of directors, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said on Friday (May 28).

Mr Wong will serve as a member of the MAS board for a term of three years from June 1, 2021, to May 31, 2024. He was previously on the MAS board from June 2011 to August 2016.

Mr Wong, who was given the finance portfolio in a recent Cabinet reshuffle, is also the co-chairman of the multi-ministry task force in charge of the Covid-19 pandemic in Singapore.

The current MAS deputy chairman, Mr Lim Hng Kiang, will step down from the post next Monday, but will remain a member of the MAS board that he has served for 23 years.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, who has been a board member since August 2016, will step down next Monday.

The MAS also welcomed Mrs Deborah Ong as a new member of its board.

Mrs Ong recently retired as a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers Singapore. She also chairs the audit and risk committees of SkillsFuture Singapore, Workforce Singapore, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine at the Nanyang Technological University, and the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA). She is also a board member of Sats, the ground-handling and in-flight catering service provider at Changi Airport.

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for Social Policies, was reappointed chairman of the MAS board for a further term of three years, starting June 1, 2021.

The MAS also announced the reappointment of other members for a further term of three years, including Mr Heng Swee Keat, Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies; Mr Peter Ong, chairman of Enterprise Singapore, who will also be reappointed chairman of the risk committee; and Professor Tan Chorh Chuan, chief health scientist at the Ministry of Health and executive director of the MOH Office for Healthcare Transformation.

Mr Ravi Menon was reappointed as member of the MAS board and managing director of MAS for a further term of two years, from June 1, 2021, to May 31, 2023.

Mr Quek See Tiat, CEA president and chairman of the Singapore Accounting Standards Council, was also reappointed as member for a one-year term, and as chairman of the audit committee.