Electronic signatures in Singapore

The law: the Electronic Transactions Act 2010

Singapore's e-signature law is the Electronic Transactions Act 2010 (2020 Revised Edition), in force since July 1, 2010 and last amended with effect from January 8, 2025. Its core rules:

• Electronic records. Information "is not to be denied legal effect, validity or enforceability solely on the ground that it is in the form of an electronic record" (s 6).
• Contracts. An offer and its acceptance may be expressed electronically, and where an electronic communication is used to form a contract, "that contract is not to be denied validity or enforceability solely on the ground that an electronic communication was used for that purpose" (s 11).
• Signatures. A "signature" is "a method (electronic or otherwise) used to identify a person and to indicate the intention of that person in respect of the information contained in a record" (s 2).

When a law requires a signature

Where a rule of law requires a signature, an electronic record meets it if (s 8):

1. a method is used to identify the person and to indicate that person's intention in respect of the information in the record; and
2. the method is either "as reliable as appropriate for the purpose for which the electronic record was generated or communicated, in the light of all the circumstances, including any relevant agreement", or "proven in fact" to have identified the person and indicated their intention, by itself or together with further evidence.

Consent and party choice. Where a rule of law or an obligation requires the parties to agree on the form of a record, that agreement "may be inferred from the conduct of the parties" (s 5(1)). Parties may also agree to exclude electronic signatures from their contract, or to add their own requirements for form or authentication (s 5(2)).

Three levels of signature

Level	What the Act requires	What it gives you
Signature (ss 2 and 8)	A method used to identify the person and to indicate their intention, as reliable as appropriate or proven in fact	Meets a legal requirement for a signature; no presumption of authenticity (s 19(3))
Secure electronic signature (s 18)	A specified security procedure, or "a commercially reasonable security procedure agreed to by the parties involved", must verify that when it was made the signature was unique to the person, capable of identifying them, created by means under their sole control, and linked to the record so that changing the record would invalidate it	Presumed, unless the contrary is shown, to be the person's signature, affixed with the intention of signing or approving the record (s 19(2))
Digital signature with a trusted certificate (Second and Third Schedules)	An asymmetric cryptosystem and hash function, verified with a valid certificate, which is trustworthy when issued by an accredited, recognized or approved public certification authority, or when the parties have expressly agreed to use digital signatures as a security procedure	Treated as a secure electronic signature (Third Schedule, para 3)

Whether a security procedure is commercially reasonable depends on its purpose and the commercial circumstances when it was used, including the nature of the transaction, the sophistication of the parties, the volume of similar transactions, alternatives offered and rejected, their cost, and procedures in general use (s 17(2)).

Matters outside the Act

The Act's Part 2 does not apply to any rule of law requiring writing or signatures in these matters (s 4 and the First Schedule):

1. the creation or execution of a will;
2. the creation, performance or enforcement of an indenture, declaration of trust or power of attorney, except implied, constructive and resulting trusts and a lasting power of attorney under the Mental Capacity Act 2008;
3. any contract for the sale or other disposition of immovable property, or any interest in such property; and
4. the conveyance of immovable property or the transfer of any interest in it.

For these matters, other laws set the form. Negotiable instruments, documents of title, bills of exchange, promissory notes and bills of lading used to be on the list too: an amendment in force since March 19, 2021 removed them and added a regime for electronic transferable records.

Proving an electronic signature

• Presumptions under the Act. A secure electronic record is presumed unaltered since the point in time its secure status relates to, and a secure electronic signature is presumed to be the signature of the person it correlates to, affixed with the intention of signing or approving (s 19(1) and (2)). Without a secure electronic record or signature, "nothing in this Part creates any presumption relating to the authenticity and integrity of the electronic record or electronic signature" (s 19(3)).
• The Evidence Act. A device or process that, if properly used, ordinarily produces or accurately communicates an electronic record is presumed to have done so on the occasion in question, and an electronic record generated, recorded or stored in the usual and ordinary course of business by a neutral third party is presumed authentic, unless evidence to the contrary is adduced (Evidence Act 1893, s 116A).
• Retention. A legal requirement to keep a record is met electronically if it stays accessible for later reference, is kept in its original format or one that accurately represents it, and keeps the details of its origin, destination and time (s 9(1)).

How to make an electronic signature hold up

1. Check the First Schedule. Wills, most trusts and powers of attorney, and immovable property sales and conveyances follow their own law.
2. Use a method that identifies each signer and records their intention for this record.
3. Make it reliable enough for the purpose, and keep the evidence that it worked.
4. If you want the secure-signature presumptions, agree on the security procedure with the other party: a procedure the Act doesn't specify qualifies only when the parties agreed to it and it is commercially reasonable.
5. Keep the signed record with its integrity protected.

Where Attest fits

Attest signatures are signatures as the Act defines them (s 2): each is made with a passkey registered to the signer's email address and indicates their intention for the exact document, and section 8 asks whether that method is as reliable as appropriate for the purpose, or proven in fact. They are not Third Schedule digital signatures, which need a certificate from a certification authority, and Attest doesn't claim the secure electronic signature tier (section 18). For everyday agreements such as client contracts, statements of work, NDAs, offer letters and vendor agreements, each signature carries the evidence section 8 asks for:

What section 8 asks	What Attest records
A method used to identify the person (s 8(a))	Each signature is made with a passkey registered to the signer's email address. A passkey is a cryptographic key only the signer controls, unlocked with Face ID, Touch ID, Windows Hello or the device PIN, and it must confirm the signer is present and verified. Attest confirms control of the email address and the passkey, not a government ID
And indicates their intention for the record	The signer reviews the document, and their passkey signs a statement that begins "I have reviewed and I sign", with the SHA-256 fingerprint of the exact document and of the signer's entries
Reliable as appropriate, or proven in fact	Attest checks each signature against the passkey's public key before recording it, the signed state is anchored on the Horizen public blockchain, and anyone can re-run the checks. Change one byte and verification fails
Retention (s 9)	Every party downloads the same sealed PDF: the signed pages, with a "Signed with Attest" stamp on each signature and a seal line at the foot of every page, a certificate of completion, the audit trail up to completion and a "Verify it yourself, without us" page, with the full evidence, the original document and a standalone verifier attached inside

A fingerprint (SHA-256 hash) is a short code calculated from a file's contents that changes if a single byte changes. The open-source verifier inside the copy runs in any browser without any Attest service and checks each signer's passkey signature, the original document, the pages you see and Attest's anchored record on Horizen. As with any evidence, the court decides how much weight it carries.

For a will, a trust or power of attorney on the First Schedule, or the sale or conveyance of immovable property, use the form that law requires.

Every document is end-to-end encrypted, so Attest can't read it. Signers need no account and never pay, and anyone can verify a signed copy for free at attest.datahubz.com/verify. Your first 2 documents are free, in total, then the Signing plan is $5 a month for 20 documents.