Positioning Singapore as an International Centre for Fund-raising

The Singapore fund-raising regime has changed dramatically in the last 20 years. The fund-raising modelled on the basic template drawn from the UK Companies Act 1948 was radically overhauled to plug Singapore into the international capital markets, and to position Singapore as an international financial centre. There are a number of components which make up the sophisticated financial services industry in Singapore, of which fund-raising is an integral— and important— component. With a view to better understanding how Singapore developed to be the international financial services hub it is today, this chapter examines how the fund-raising regime found today in Part XIII of the Securities and Futures Act has been progressively changed and fine-tuned in the bid to enhance Singapore as an attractive international centre for fund-raising. A prime example is the subdivision providing for carve-outs to the general prospectus requirement (Subdivision 4 to Part XIII). The author argues that the process is demonstrative of the responsiveness of the lawmakers and the regulators to reconsidering the necessary protections offered by securities law to the different types of investors.