Speaker

Grace Chong is the Head of Financial Regulatory for Gibson Dunn’s Singapore office. She has extensive experience advising on cross-border and complex regulatory matters, including licensing and conduct of business requirements, regulatory investigations, and regulatory change. A former in-house counsel at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Ms. Chong 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 also brings a strategic outlook from an in-house perspective having previously been a counsel in the Global Internal Investigations Group at the Hong Kong headquarters of a large leading multinational bank. Ms. Chong is a strong advocate for digital innovation and critical infrastructural transformation. She has advised banks, exchanges, asset managers and startups across Singapore and Hong Kong on regulatory issues such as AML and sanctions compliance, banking and payments regulations, and data protection and security. Ms. Chong has been consistently named as one of Singapore’s top 10 FinTech lawyers and is highly ranked in Chambers FinTech 2022, with clients noting that she “is very savvy and shares her knowledge of the MAS and market trends” and “is very pragmatic and always comes forth with sensible and realistic propositions, after an in-depth understanding of our requirements and objectives. She is a real asset to have on our side.” Further, she is recommended in Financial Services Regulatory for Singapore by The Legal 500 2022 guide which notes that she “is one of the best crypto regulatory lawyers in Singapore and is very responsive and personable.” Ms. Chong was recognized as an “Innovative Individual” in Financial Times’ Innovative Lawyers Awards 2021 and was named as one of Asian Legal Business’ Top 15 Rising Lawyers for APAC. Ms. Chong is an elected board member of the Singapore Association of Cryptocurrency Enterprises and Startups (ACCESS), has worked with the Asia Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association (ASIFMA) to draft best practices for the development of fintech and for digital asset exchanges, and sits on the Singapore Board of Women in Payments and the AML Committee of Global Digital Finance. 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.