Grace Chong

Grace heads the Financial Services Regulation practice in Drew & Napier LLC. 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), she 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. Grace has led regulatory teams in Singapore and Hong Kong at two international law firms, further developing her expertise in navigating complex financial regulatory environments across multiple jurisdictions. 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.

Grace has been consistently named as one of Singapore’s top 10 FinTech lawyers and is highly ranked in Chambers FinTech and Legal 500. She is particularly recognized for her expertise in emerging technologies, including digital assets, and the strategic integration of AI solutions within financial institutions. Her team provides dedicated regulatory support to banks, asset managers and fintechs on key regulatory areas, including banking and payments regulations, licensing and authorization processes, AML regulatory investigations and sanctions, ESG implementation and audits, outsourcing and data transfer arrangements, and reviews of ISDA agreements and ancillary documents.  

She was also recognized as an “Innovative Individual” in Financial Times’ Innovative Lawyers Awards 2021, named as a “Rising Star” at the 2023 IFLR Asia-Pacific Awards, 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.

Grace 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.