Daily Briefing: SingPass adds e-signature feature; Two bills passed to aid businesses, workers

And Singapore crypto wallet operator Math Global secures $10.57m in Series A+ funding round.

From ChannelNewsAsia:

A digital signature feature was launched on the SingPass mobile app on 5 November to provide "greater convenience" in legal documentation signing, the Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech) said.

Dubbed “Sign with SingPass,” the service will enable more than 2.1m users to sign digital documents in less than two minutes, GovTech said in a media release.

This "will be useful for organisations and their customers with the increasing prevalence of online transactions" as the COVID-19 pandemic has made physical signing of documents more challenging," it added.

GovTech said this feature will be piloted "in the coming weeks" for the digital signing of property caveats lodged electronically with the Singapore Land Authority.

Lawyers can also digitally sign "anytime and anywhere" without the need for a hardware token or a physical setup of a laptop to lodge a caveat.

Read more here.

From HumanResourcesOnline:

Singapore, on 3 November, passed two bills to aid businesses and workers, during these uncertain times.

The Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution (Amendment) Bill will establish a simplified insolvency programme, which provides for a simplified process for eligible companies that require support to restructure their debts to rehabilitate the business and wind up the company as the business has ceased to be viable.

On the other hand, the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Amendment No.3 Bill provides for contracts already entered into, to be renegotiated amidst these unprecedented and uncertain times.

In a speech at the second reading of the bills, NTUC Assistant Secretary-General Patrick Tay expressed his support for both bills, whilst pointing out areas of improvement.

The simplified proceedings the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution (Amendment) Bill provides for may help to reduce the time and costs involved in conventional insolvency processes, which may help to somewhat increase the overall pool of assets and monies to be eventually used to satisfy a company’s debts.

Read more here. 

From DealStreetAsia:

Singapore-based Math Global Foundation, operator of the multi-platform universal crypto wallet MathWallet, has raised $10.57m (US$7.8m) in a Series A+ funding round led by Hong Kong’s cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research.

Blockchain investment firms, including Multicoin Capital, also participated in the funding round that Math Global said will help it build out more extensive decentralised ecosystems.

“We decided to take on additional capital from industry leaders to further expand our business to the global markets and accelerate our core product offering,” said Frank Fu, CEO of Math Global Foundation.

The Singapore firm said MathWallet enables storage and cross-chain exchanges of over 50 major public blockchain tokens such as BTC, ETH, and Polkadot.

Math Global has been profitable since the beginning of this year.

Read more here.