Financial Services

Our Financial Services Practice is recognised as an eminent team in Singapore. Our client centric lawyers and practitioners have experience advising domestic and international banks, financial institutions and corporations. The firm is also a market leader in the FinTech, Blockchain and ICO space.

We handle a wide variety of domestic and international loan financing, and act for financiers, borrowers and security providers. The team also advises on derivatives transactions and banking and financial regulations and compliance issues.

Serving both local and international clientele, our practice is consistently appointed by the largest financial institutions operating in the region. We also regularly act for many of the leading corporations in Singapore and the region.

FinTech

Singapore is Asia’s FinTech hub, with key elements supporting FinTech innovation, namely, markets, talent, capital, regulation and government support, converging in this vibrant city state.

FinTech innovation brings several legal challenges, including those arising from financial services regulation, securities regulation, data protection and privacy, intellectual property, contract and consumer laws.

RHTLaw Asia is a market leader in this sector and has worked with international companies, both in the financial services and technology sectors, providing a wide variety of solutions.

Our team is proud to have worked with more than 200 FinTech platforms globally.

We understand and anticipate the issues our clients may face. Our approach is practical and risk-focused, with an objective of facilitating our clients’ business objectives.

Banking Industry Services

Regulatory compliance and Governance
Data protection
Employment and HR
Real Estate
IT/commercial contracts
Intellectual property
Corporate Secretarial Services

Banking & Finance

General banking transactions and facilities
Derivatives transactions
Standard form banking documentation
Acquisition finance
Asset and asset-backed financing
Bilateral, club and syndicated loans
Loan restructurings and refinancing
Project development and financing
Property finance
Trade and commodity finance

Banking Litigation

Financial Disputes resolution
Enforcement and loan recovery
Corporate insolvency

FinTech

Regulatory analysis of impact of business model
Regulatory sandbox applications
Regulatory licensing applications
Designing of compliance framework
Drafting of transactional and other legal documentation
Ongoing legal and compliance transaction
Fund-raising
Mergers and Acquisitions
Intellectual Property
Issuance of securities and utilities tokens
Training
Litigation and dispute resolution

Insurance

Advising on various insurance products and related documentation
Advising insurers and re-insurers on compliance and regulatory issues

Islamic Finance

Our expertise is wide ranging, and covers both regional and domestic transactions. Our team has in their past experiences successfully advised on a number of Islamic financial structures, real estate, project financings, bonds and sukuks, developing new Islamic financial products, and ensuring the structures or deals meet Islamic regulatory requirements. We offer invaluable Islamic structures in bringing together conventional banks, Islamic banks and other financiers with investors that require funding to be provided on a Shariah compliant basis. Here are some examples:

Islamic Banking & Financing

Murabaha Structure
Commodity Murabaha Arrangement
Simple Ijara Lease
Ijara wa iqtina
Diminishing Musharaka
Istisna’ Financing Structure
Spot Murabaha
Cross border Islamic banking and finance advisory work

Islamic Capital Market / Funds Structures

Cross border Islamic Fund initiatives
Sukuk based on various structures
Islamic Money Market Instruments
Islamic Foreign Investments
Islamic Real Estate Investments Trusts
Islamic Funds Transactions
Private Equity and Venture Capital- Mudharabah & Musharakah
Islamic Profit Rate Swap (
Cross border Islamic Capital Market / Fund Structures advisory work

Takaful

Islamic insurance products development (cross border advisory work)

Private Banking

Bespoke financing for high-net-worth individuals
Advising on personal wealth structures, locally and globally

Regulatory Compliance

Legal and financial services regulatory compliance solutions
Consultation, policy-making and best practice advisory
Pre-inspection strategic preparation, post-inspection remediation program
Islamic finance compliance
Crisis management

At the requests of our clients, we have seconded our lawyers to financial institutions to assist our clients on their internal legal support needs and hence are familiar with the day to day legal matters of a financial institution.