Evan Lam

Evan leads the firm’s structured finance and derivatives practice in Singapore. He is also a partner in the firm's financial regulation practice in Singapore. He combines extensive structured products and derivatives knowledge with top tier expertise in Singapore laws and regulations to deliver practical and incisive solutions to clients. 

His structured finance expertise covers cash and synthetic securitisations, regulatory capital structures, structured notes, OTC and cleared derivatives, structured repos and securities loans. Prior to joining Linklaters, he was one of the principal drafters of Singapore industry opinions on netting and collateral enforceability, and was the lead drafter on industry responses to the FSB OTC derivatives markets reforms in Singapore. 
His regulatory practice covers the full spectrum of Singapore financial regulations, including banking, insurance, securities and derivatives, asset management and payment services regulations. He has represented the industry on numerous regulatory reform projects, such as Singapore’s cross border licensing framework and the roll out of FSB OTC derivatives reforms. His clients include many of the world’s largest international banks, as well as major asset managers, payments companies and insurers. 

His practice also focuses on Fintech (particularly digital assets and digital transformation of the financial sector), ESG and transition finance, and Islamic finance.  

Evan’s experience to date has gained him a reputation for one of the most skilled finance lawyers in the market. He is currently ranked as a leading lawyer in Singapore by Chambers APAC 2024 for Banking & Finance: Regulatory, and Capital Markets: Securitisation & Derivatives: Domestic. He is also recognised as a Next Generation Partner in Legal 500 Capital Markets: Structured Finance, Derivatives and Securitisation: Foreign Firms. 

Work highlights

Among the many matters Evan has worked on, he has advised:

Structured finance and derivatives matters

• The International Swaps and Derivatives Association on the update of the 1998 FX Definitions.
• Regional banks on the documentation of various Islamic derivatives, structured products and repurchase agreements.
• Maybank Singapore Limited advising the issuer on establishment of its US$10bn Reg S Global Covered Bond Programme, and in particular on the establishment of hedges with the covered bond guarantor. 
• An international bank on the establishment of its securities lending programme in Singapore and Hong Kong. 

Financial regulatory matters

• Buy and sell-side firms on compliance with the 2024 MAS OTC derivatives trade reporting rules re-write.
• Atlantic BidCo on Singapore regulatory matters in connection with the public takeover of Aareal Bank AG, and various other acquisitions of Singapore financial institutions. 
• A securities brokerage firm on the roll out of an innovative instant settlement system. 
• DBS, UOB and OCBC on the joint implementation of a new Supplementary Retirement Scheme Framework for onboarding and management of SRS product providers.
• ASIFMA and member banks on the consultation with MAS on Singapore’s cross border licensing exemption framework, and subsequent implementation.

Evan was a partner at Allen & Gledhill LLP for over 10 years and partner at Ashurst before joining Linklaters. At Ashurst, he was the head of the Singapore financial regulatory practice. 

He has previously acted as opinion counsel to industry bodies such as ISDA and SIFMA on netting and collateral opinions, and works closely with industry bodies on proactively shaping and reforming regulations to help financial institutions do business in Singapore. 

Other work highlights

These include advising on:

• A major regional bank on the establishment of its Singapore OTC derivatives trading desk. 
• A major regional bank on its carbon trading documentation (compliance and voluntary market) for spot and OTC derivatives trading.
• Various banks on regulatory capital opinions for netting and CRM purposes under Singapore law. 
• DBS, OCBC and UOB on the establishment and ongoing draw-downs under their award winning covered bond programmes. 
• A bank on the roll out of OTC crypto-linked derivatives and structured notes. 

Financial regulatory matters

• Various international firms on the establishment of their Singapore offices, including the Alberta Investment Management Corporation, Bordier & Cie, Tiger Brokers, Chi-X (Singapore’s first exchange-backed dark trading pool). 
• Various banks, market operators, asset managers, securities firms and commodities houses on licence application, cross-border licensing advice, and ongoing business conduct requirements. 

Digital assets / Fintech matters

• A custodian bank on the provision of services under Singapore’s stablecoin framework.
• A bank on the deployment of a tokenised payment ledger that allows digital cash to be moved in real time within the bank system. 
• Bondevalue on ongoing regulatory compliance matters and the offers of new products on the BondBloX Exchange. 
• Funding Societies and CardUp on the roll out of the Elevate virtual card.
• Various asset managers on the proposed offer of tokenised funds over real world assets.

Evan holds a Bachelor of Laws from the National University of Singapore.

Evan co-authored a position paper on “Adoption of Singapore Law as the Governing Law for OTC Derivative Transactions” for the Centre for Banking & Finance Law, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, 2017.