Moneylending regime to be strengthened

Singapore law practices will be encouraged to raise productivity, deepen service and practice capabilities, encourage product innovation and adopt new technologies for the industry to remain “forward-looking”.

In collaboration with the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, Singapore will be pushed as a neutral venue for interstate disputes and for maritime disputes to be heard here.

To strengthen the moneylending regime, a centralised credit bureau, an aggregate unsecured-borrowing cap, among other things, will be implemented. There will also be changes to the pawnbroking regime, such as requiring pawnbrokers to appoint an auditor to conduct audits annually.

Apart from introducing a more rehabilitative system that allows bankrupts to be discharged within clearer timeframes, there will be reforms to have credit providers take on better risk assessments and have borrowers clear their debt responsibly. The individual bankruptcy and corporate insolvency regimes will be updated and combined into a single piece of legislation.

Singapore Land Authority (SLA), a statutory board under MinLaw, will explore the greater use of subterranean space as Singapore becomes more built-up. Together with the Infocomm Development Authority, SLA will formulate the Geospatial Master Plan under the Smart Nation initiative.

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