Raffles Place and Marina Bay

Raffles Place and Marina Bay, with Tanjong Pagar, make up the core of Singapore’s central business district. One grew from land reclaimed in the 1820s, the other from a plan drawn up in 1991. If you are looking for a base for a regional headquarters, a treasury or a family office, this is the district to start with.

From Commercial Square to the new downtown

In 1823 a hill near the river was levelled and its earth used to reclaim marshy land on the south bank. The result was Commercial Square, later renamed Raffles Place, which remained the financial district of Singapore into the twenty-first century. It lies within the Downtown Core defined by the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

Marina Bay came much later. The 1991 Concept Plan mapped it as a new downtown and an extension of the central business district, and the first land sale followed in 2001. Around 2013 the authority described Marina Bay Financial Centre as a choice location for financial institutions.

The financial centre in figures

These figures cover Singapore as a whole. The directory of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, read on 4 November 2026, lists 6 local bank, 10 qualifying full bank, 20 full bank, 96 wholesale bank and 21 merchant bank licences, together with 27 representative offices. One bank may hold several licences, so the numbers should not be added up.

Assets under management stood at S$6.7 trillion on 31 December 2025, of which 76 per cent was sourced from outside Singapore and 88 per cent was invested outside it. At that date 1,320 fund management companies were licensed. The BIS survey of April 2025 places Singapore third among foreign exchange markets, after the United Kingdom and the United States, with US$1.485 trillion a day. SGX reported a market capitalisation of S$1,120.3 billion at the end of April 2026. The Global Financial Centres Index published on 16 September 2026 ranks Singapore 4th of 117 centres, behind New York, London and Hong Kong.

Practical points

A Singapore company needs a registered office in Singapore from the day of incorporation, at least one share with a capital of at least S$1 and at least one director who is ordinarily resident. Corporate income tax is a flat 17 per cent for local and foreign companies alike, and GST has been 9 per cent since 1 January 2024. Staff from abroad need a work pass. For new Employment Pass applications in financial services the qualifying salary runs from S$6,200 to S$11,800 a month until the end of 2026, and from S$6,600 to S$12,700 for applications from 1 January 2027.

The articles below come from the books Singapore as an International Financial Centre and Digital Assets Law in Singapore and Switzerland. They cover regulation, banking, tax and disputes.

Across the Singapore financial centre

Singapore · Book

Singapore as an International Financial Centre — preface

Few places show as clearly as Singapore that a financial centre can be built by design.

Singapore · Origins

A Place on the Strait: Temasek, Singapura and the Maritime Trade of the Malay World

Every financial centre begins with a place.

Singapore · Origins

The Strait of Malacca as a corridor of trade

The Strait of Malacca owes its importance to the winds.

Singapore · Origins

Temasek and Singapura in the fourteenth century: archaeology and chronicle

The history of the island before 1819 rests on three kinds of written evidence: Chinese travel and geographical literature, Javanese court poetry and the Malay historical tradition.

Singapore · Origins

Malacca, Johor and the Riau archipelago

Malacca, founded around 1400 by the refugee prince from Singapura, became within a few decades the greatest port of Southeast Asia.

Singapore · Origins

Portuguese, Dutch and British rivalry in the Straits

The Portuguese who conquered Malacca in 1511 brought a new model of trade to the Strait.

Singapore · Origins

What the pre-colonial port teaches about location and trust

The history of the Strait before 1819 shows that geography creates opportunity. The island of Singapore occupied an exceptional position that remained unchanged throughout the period.

Singapore · Origins

A Place on the Strait: Temasek, Singapura and the Maritime Trade of the Malay World: summary

The island of Singapore controls the southern exit of the Strait of Malacca, the shortest sea route between the Indian Ocean and China, a position that made it a potential market from the earliest…

Singapore · Origins

Raffles, the East India Company and the Free Port of 1819

On 6 February 1819, in a ceremony on the plain beside the Singapore River, a servant of the English East India Company signed a treaty with a Malay prince whom he had recognised as sultan a few days…

Singapore · Origins

The East India Company and the China trade

The English East India Company, chartered in 1600, was by the early nineteenth century a hybrid without parallel: a joint-stock company whose shareholders met in London and a sovereign power that…

Singapore · Origins

Stamford Raffles and William Farquhar

Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles was born on 5 July 1781 on board the ship Ann off Port Morant, Jamaica, and entered the service of the East India Company in London as a clerk in 1795, at the age of…

Singapore · Origins

The agreements with Sultan Hussein and the Temenggong

Raffles’ expedition landed on St John’s Island on 28 January 1819 and arrived at the Singapore River the next day.

Singapore · Origins

The free-port principle: open to every flag

The decision that shaped Singapore more than any other was the decision to make it a free port.

Singapore · Origins

Early growth and the first merchant community

The growth of the settlement in its first years was spectacular. In the first year, the value of trade was reported at 400,000 Spanish dollars.

Singapore · Origins

What 1819 means for the financial centre

The founding of 1819 established the institutional foundations on which the financial centre was later built.

Singapore · Origins

Raffles, the East India Company and the Free Port of 1819: summary

The East India Company founded Singapore in 1819 to secure the route of its China trade and to break the Dutch hold on the southern Strait, under a cautious mandate that sought a British station…

Singapore · Origins

The Treaties of 1824 and the Legal Foundations of British Singapore

The treaty of 6 February 1819 gave the East India Company a trading post on an island whose legal status was contested. The Dutch disputed the authority of the sultan who had signed it.

Singapore · Origins

The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824

The dispute over Singapore was one of several questions that divided Britain and the Netherlands in Asia after the Napoleonic Wars. Both powers had an interest in a settlement.

Singapore · Origins

The Treaty of Friendship and Alliance of 1824

The agreement of 7 June 1823 had already transferred the judicial powers and land rights of the sultan and the Temenggong to the British in exchange for lifelong monthly payments of 1,500 and 800…

Singapore · Origins

The Straits Settlements and the Second Charter of Justice

In 1826, the East India Company combined its three possessions in the Strait – Penang, Malacca and Singapore – into a single administrative unit, the Straits Settlements.

Singapore · Origins

The reception of English law

The Second Charter did more than establish a court.

Singapore · Origins

Land, title and the security of property

A financial centre depends on secure property rights. Land is the most important form of collateral. A mortgage is worth only as much as the title on which it rests.

Singapore · Origins

Practical consequences for today’s practitioner

The history examined in this chapter is not merely of antiquarian interest. Several of its consequences confront the practitioner who advises on Singapore matters today.

Singapore · Origins

Legal foundations and the comparison with Geneva

Geneva and Singapore built their financial centres on different legal traditions.

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