Natalie Curtis

Prior to joining Walkers, Natalie was a partner in the Singapore office of a leading international firm and head of its Southeast-Asia financial services regulatory practice and co-head of its Singapore fintech practice. Before that she practiced in the Hong Kong and Sydney offices of that firm. She started her career in the Auckland office of a leading New Zealand firm.

Natalie's extensive experience includes advising on a broad range of non-contentious regulatory and compliance matters relating to AML/CFT regulation and compliance, financial services licensing, banking and securities regulation, fund management, economic substance, internal controls and corporate governance, operational resilience, data protection, cybersecurity, senior management accountability, culture and conduct, M&A involving regulated entities, cross-border marketing, investor classification, investment suitability and the cross-border and local impact of regulatory change. 

Natalie's contentious experience includes advising clients on internal and regulatory investigations and enforcement relating to breaches of AML/CFT regulations, market misconduct, conflicts of interest, employee conduct issues, systems and controls breaches, cyber-related incidents, IPO sponsorship conduct, misleading financial advice fees and mis-selling. 

In the rapidly evolving fintech and virtual asset sectors in particular, Natalie has worked with an impressive client roster spanning leading virtual asset trading platforms and technology companies to traditional financial institutions. Natalie's experience in these sectors includes advising on establishing virtual banks, payment and VASP licensing, compliance frameworks for VASPs, token/coin/NFT offerings, tokenisation, robo-advisory platforms and app-based securities trading platforms.
 
Natalie regularly interacts with key regulators and works closely with industry bodies to drive financial services and virtual asset regulatory reform and developments. Natalie is a member of AIMA's Hong Kong Regulatory Committee and its Asia Digital Assets Working Group. She also regularly speaks at industry conferences on regulatory and virtual asset-related topics.