Are electronic signatures legal in Singapore?

The Electronic Transactions Act

The Electronic Transactions Act 2010 (ETA), now in its 2020 Revised Edition, replaced the 1998 act that first implemented the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce. Information isn't denied legal effect, validity or enforceability solely because it's in an electronic record (s. 6). For signatures, section 8 asks three things of the method used:

• it identifies the person;
• it indicates the person's intention about the information in the record;
• it's either as reliable as appropriate for the purpose in all the circumstances, or proven in fact to have done the first two things.

Secure electronic signatures

The Act also defines a secure electronic signature (s. 18): one that, through a prescribed or commercially reasonable security procedure, was unique to the signer, identified them, was under their sole control and was linked to the record so that a change would invalidate it. Such a signature is presumed to be the signer's and affixed with intent to sign (s. 19(2)). Without one, the Act creates no presumption (s. 19(3)), so a party relying on an ordinary e-signature has to prove it with evidence. Digital signatures backed by certificates are covered in the Third Schedule.

What the First Schedule excludes

Section 4 and the First Schedule keep these matters outside Part 2 of the Act, which holds the rules on writing and signatures:

• Creating or executing a will.
• Creating, performing or enforcing an indenture, a declaration of trust or a power of attorney. Implied, constructive and resulting trusts are carved out of the exclusion, and so are lasting powers of attorney under the Mental Capacity Act.
• Contracts for the sale or other disposition of immovable property, or any interest in it.
• Conveyances of immovable property or transfers of any interest in it.

The list used to be longer. Amendments in force from March 19, 2021 adopted the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records and removed negotiable instruments, bills of exchange, promissory notes, bills of lading and other documents of title from the schedule. They can now exist as electronic transferable records under Part 2A. The ETA also gives effect to the UN Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts.

Where SignMaster fits in Singapore

SignMaster provides ordinary electronic signatures with an audit trail, not secure electronic signatures or certificate-based digital signatures. That covers contracts outside the First Schedule: service and supply agreements, quotes, NDAs and employment paperwork. Leave anything that disposes of an interest in land, leases included, to your lawyer. Because section 19(3) leaves the proof to you, each completed PDF includes a certificate of completion recording every signer's email, IP address, consent and timestamps, plus a SHA-256 fingerprint of each file.