TRM Talks: Understanding Crypto Regulation in Singapore

Grace Chong is head of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s financial regulatory practice in Singapore, where she leads a team of three regulatory associates. She has ‘hit the ground running’ since joining the firm in January 2022 and has already made a significant impact: Gibson Dunn’s financial regulatory practice was awarded “Law Firm of the Year” at the recent Regulation Asia Awards for Excellence 2022.

Grace has extensive experience on a full range of complex financial regulatory, data privacy, licensing, regulatory investigations, environmental, social and governance (ESG) implementation and technology transactions. She is a certified cybersecurity GIAC GLEG, IAPP CIPP/A/E and IAPP CIPM professional. Her talents have not gone unnoticed: Grace was awarded Privacy and Data Protection Lawyer of the Year by Euromoney’s Women in Business Law Awards 2021.

She has a unique ability to bring clients hands-on, industry experience. She is former in-house counsel at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), regularly interacts with key regulators, is closely involved in regional regulatory reform initiatives, and has led discussions with regulators on behalf of the financial services industry. She is a board member of ACCESS Blockchain Association and is currently leading ACCESS to draft consult responses for digital assets and a Code of Best Practices for Advertising Guidelines on behalf of the digital assets industry.

Grace also sits on the Board of the Women in Payments group and leads the ESG Working Group in AIMA. She is also a member of the Women in Practice and AML Committees of the Law Society of Singapore and has drafted regulations in relation to client due diligence for digital asset companies and innovative product offerings.

In terms of client work, she previously advised a global financial institution regarding its role as a key market participant supporting the blockchain-based payment system governed by Diem Association in multiple jurisdictions. Besides general asset management licensing and a portfolio of banking and trade finance regulatory work, she is also well-known in the fintech space for her regulatory licensing expertise, particularly in relation to digital assets and financial derivatives.

Grace has advised several leading fintech companies and other firms to obtain licenses and launch products and services in Asia. She also assists several gaming and tech companies on regulatory matters, gambling regulations, and other TMT advice in Asia.

John Ho is the Global Head of Legal, Financial Markets for Standard Chartered Bank(“SCB”), overseeing and providing legal advisory, transactional and documentation support for Financial Markets (FM) business globally for Standard Chartered Bank (SCB),its branches and affiliates. Mr Ho is a member of Regulatory Working Group of the ACIFMA. Mr. Ho is also the co-chair of (1) the ISDA South East Asia Legal and RegulatoryCommittee and (2) the ISDA Asia Pacific ESG Working group.

He is an active participant in the industry’s Fintech events and is a public speaker on topics such as Central Bank Digital Currencies, Blockchain, Digital Assets, FinancialMarkets, Sustainability and Regulatory Reforms. He serves as a mentor to startups and co-authored a publication from the World Economic Forum called The Digital CurrencyGovernance Consortium Whitepaper, published in November 2021. He is a also mentor for the UK FCA Sustainability TechSprint, FCA Digital Sandbox, R3 and LongHash.

Prior to joining SCB, Mr. Ho was the Managing Director Principal in the legal department of Bear Stearns (Japan), Ltd (“Bear Stearns”) where he supported the Asia franchise(including Tokyo, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Korea, India and South-east Asia) fromJanuary 2003 to August 2008 covering various structured products and derivatives including equity derivatives, credit derivatives, fixed income and commodities.

Prior to joining Bear Stearns, Mr. Ho worked as Asia equity counsel for Lehman Brothers in Tokyo with experience dealing in convertibles, options, warrants, delta one products and other types of equity derivatives transactions, equity finance and equity capital markets. He is qualified as an advocate and solicitor in Singapore since 1995 and he received hislaw degree from the National University of Singapore.