TPF of international arbitration in Singapore now a reality

1 March 2017

The Civil Law (Amendment) Bill (Bill No. 38/2016) came into force on 1st March 2017 as the Civil Law (Amendment) Act 2017 (the Act), together with the Civil Law (Third Party Funding) Regulations 2017 (the Regulations) and an amendment to the professional conduct rules for lawyers in Singapore.

The Act establishes a framework for third party funding in Singapore:

Only professional funders are permitted to enter into third party funding arrangements in Singapore. A qualifying third party funder must:

New professional conduct rules for lawyers also came in force today, requiring lawyers to disclose the existence of funding arrangements. To prevent conflicts of interest, a legal practitioner is obliged to disclose to the relevant court or tribunal, and to every other party to the proceedings:

Legal practitioners or law practices are prohibited from holding financial or other interests in, or receiving commissions, fees or shares of proceeds from, third party funders that they have introduced or referred to their clients or that have third party funding contracts with their clients.

Having been pro-active in the consultations leading up to the Act, Harbour welcomes the developments in Singapore which allows businesses and lawyers alike to take advantage of funding for their arbitrations. Alive to the fast pace of change in the Asia Pacific region, we devoted the recent edition of Harbour View to TPF developments in the region with a treasure of insights from all stakeholders.

For any questions on third party funding in the Asia Pacific region, please contact the team in Hong Kong.

Media room

Sign up to receive the latest news, opinions and event information