EFG may want a “substantial” escrow account to protect it from any penalties which BSI may have to pay out as a result of the investigations which have spread to three continents.

EFG International AG, according to media reports, has agreed to pay 1.33 billion Swiss francs (USD1.34 billion) for BSI. The deal could place BSI among the nation’s top-five money managers for the wealthy. BTG Pactual and EFG have been in secret talks on BSI for several weeks. Reuters reported last Friday, citing sources, that BSI could be valued at 1.6 billion francs.

The EFG acquisition comes five months after Brazil-based BTG Pactual sealed a deal to buy BSI for 1.25 billion francs.

The Swiss Attorney-General (AG) has since alerted authorities in Malaysia that as much as USD4 billion may have gone missing from 1MDB. Attorney-General Mohd Apandi Ali, however, cleared Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who heads 1MDB’s Advisory Board, of any wrongdoing related to two cases, at least one of which was believed linked to the state-owned company he heads.

1MDB disclosed last year that it had transferred USD1.1 billion from Cayman Islands to BSI Singapore. Documents filed at the High Court in Singapore this month revealed that BSI private banker Yak Yew Chee was a key figure in the probe. Yaw, who joined BSI Singapore in 2009, was in charge of the “lucrative” 1MDB account.