Grace Chong is Of Counsel in Gibson Dunn’s Singapore office and a member of the firm’s Global Financial Regulatory Group. She heads the Financial Regulatory practice in Singapore which consists of three associates.  The practice was recently named Law Firm of the Year in the 5th Regulation Asia Awards for Excellence 2022.

Ms. Chong 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 banking and payments regulations, implementation of electronic trading platforms, licensing, outsourcing, virtual banking, derivatives and structured products, and data protection and security.

She has been consistently named as one of Singapore’s top 10 FinTech lawyers and is highly ranked in Chambers FinTech 2023, 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 in Asian Legal Business’ inaugural Singapore Rising Stars 2022 list, as well as its Top 15 Rising Lawyers for APAC.  She was also recognised in IFLR’s Women in Business’ Expert Guides for Singapore for the Financial Services Regulatory category for 2022.

Ms. Chong is a certified cybersecurity GIAC GLEG, IAPP CIPP/A/E and IAPP CIPM professional, and regularly conducts cybersecurity assessments and investigations in Asia.  In addition, she is an International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) Fellow of Information Privacy and is part of the IAPP Women Leading Privacy Board.  She was named as a Global Data Review’s Top 40 Data Lawyers for 2021, and was awarded “Privacy and Data Protection Lawyer of the Year” by Euromoney’s Women in Business Law Awards 2021.

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 Certified Global Sanctions Specialist (ACAMS) with specialist expertise in sanctions, the application of the travel rule and the development of AML programmes.  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.

Ms. Chong sits in the Regulatory Committee of Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), led the Environmental, Social and Governance Working Group in the and was involved in drafting an ESG Primer for Asset Managers in Asia.  She also led AIMA’s responses to ESG related consults across both Hong Kong and Singapore and has advised on the extra-territorial impact of SFDR, licensing and documentation requirements for the launch of ESG products and policy, governance and documentation amendments for climate change related regulations.

Ms. Chong speaks regularly at various conferences in the region, and her insights on regulatory matters have been published in various publications such as Forbes, Financial Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, Regulation Asia, Ignites and various other platforms.

Ms. Chong studied law on a MAS scholarship and graduated with First Class Honors from University College London.  She is admitted as an Advocate and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore and as a Solicitor of the High Court of Hong Kong.  Ms. Chong is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.