Chee Hian Kwah leads Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Prolegis’s financial services regulatory practice in Singapore, with a year defined by recognition and delivery. In December 2024 he was listed among Singapore Business Review’s notable lawyers under 40, and in July 2025 he was named an Asian Legal Business Singapore Rising Star 2025. From Q3 2024 to Q3 2025, he acted for a global fund manager on its multi-billion dollar acquisition of another asset management group, securing the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s approval for various change-of-control applications across the fund-management and insurance sectors. The mandate required managing regulator expectations and timelines, and obtaining comfort on a transaction structure that is uncommon in Singapore.

Kwah’s contributions to firm growth are concrete. In Q4 2024 he helped win a mandate from a Chinese financial institution for investments and fund-management activities in Singapore, leading calls and meetings that persuaded the client to switch to HSF Kramer Prolegis. He also successfully pitched a financial institution in Q3 2024 to set up its investment and wealth management platform; following its launch, the financial institution appointed him again in Q3 2025 to expand coverage to a broader range of investment products.

As Head of the Singapore FSR practice since Q3 2024, he has set strategy around strengthening regional corridors (Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong) and international links (Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States), acting as regulatory contact for clients in Singapore and Southeast Asia and steering cross-jurisdictional matters to completion. Over the past year he expanded the offering from banking, fund-management and payments to include insurance, securities dealing and real estate, and deepened coverage to AML/CFT and sanctions.

Kwah’s cross-border regulatory work spans consumer and wholesale contexts. He has advised a Big Tech company on payments and financial-services laws across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia and Thailand for the roll-out of certain payment tech functions across these jurisdictions. He is acting for a financial institution in a class action in England (~£1bn to £2bn), coordinating with teams in England and Hong Kong to address disclosure rules and to navigate conflicting regulatory requirements. He has also advised a global bank on the setting up of its cross-border business arrangements across Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia. Testimonials reflect a business-centred approach, and his seminars and publications on AML/KYC and regional crypto and scam-framework developments foster a specialised, globally attuned regulatory bar.