Recent Significant Developments to Third-Party Funding in Singapore’s Arbitration Landscape

By Abraham Vergis, Asiyah Arif & Niki Chen

abraham@providencelawasia.com    asiyah@providencelawasia.com

Third-party funding is increasingly prevalent globally in both litigation and arbitration. Prior to the legislative change in Singapore, many of the leading centres of international arbitration, e.g. New York, London, and Paris, had already permitted third-party funding.

Third-party funding involves the funding of a claim by a funder who has no connection to the dispute. Usually, the third-party funder will agree to finance some or all of the client’s legal fees in exchange for a share of the recovered damages.

In order to maintain and fortify Singapore’s prominence in international disputes, the Singapore Parliament passed the Civil Law (Amendment) Bill which amended the Civil Law Act (Cap 43) (“CLA”). This came into effect on 1 March 2017.

In the below PDF, Providence Law provides a brief overview of the key changes relating to third-party funding in Singapore.