Transmenu powered by JoomlArt.com - Mambo Joomla Professional Templates Club

©The Sun (Used by permission)

PETALING JAYA: Addressing concerns by the legal fraternity, Malayan Banking Bhd says that equity ownership has never been the sole and overriding determinant for placement on its panel of solicitors.

In a statement released over the weekend, the country’s largest banking group said in its annual review of its panel of solicitors, it had always taken a flexible approach and it was not the intention to call for existing solicitors to restructure their equity ownership.

“We would like to assure all parties concerned that the bank has taken note of the issues highlighted and that the necessary review will be undertaken with due consideration to the feedback raised,” it said.

“Rest assured that efficiency and performances of lawyers as well as their ability to provide the highest standards of service to the bank and its customer have always been a core requirement for appointment onto the bank’s panel of solicitors,” the statement said.

Maybank had ruffled the legal fraternity’s feathers after the vernacular press reported that the bank had set a “new” condition requiring existing and newly-selected panel of lawyers to have at least three partners, one of whom must be a bumiputra holding a minimum of 50% equity in the partnership.

It was understood that another bank also applied a similar condition on its legal partners.

Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan criticised the move as “discriminatory”.

“This policy is discriminatory in nature and we have received complaints from lawyers on the matter. It should not be imposed on our members,” she said, adding that the Bar Council had written to Maybank on this.

The news broke in the Chinese press last Tuesday. MCA think-tank INSAP’s economic caucus vice-chairman Dr Jeffrey Goh was quoted as saying the regulation was an insult to the legal profession and contradicted the premier’s calls to promote meritocracy.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed