Singapore's list of documents that its Electronic Transactions Act does not cover has changed twice since 2021, and the change has not reached every page that explains it. We read the nine pages that ranked in one search on 29 September 2026 for whether electronic signatures are legal in Singapore, and four still listed negotiable instruments, such as bills of exchange, as excluded from the Act. They left that list in March 2021. Only one of the nine mentioned the second change, in November 2022, which let a lasting power of attorney be signed electronically.
In Singapore a typed name, a drawn signature or a pasted image of one can meet a legal requirement for a signature, if the method identifies the person, shows that they meant to approve the document, and is reliable enough for the purpose or proven to have done both. The exceptions are wills, most trusts and powers of attorney, and contracts for or transfers of land. Malaysia's Electronic Commerce Act works in a similar way for commercial transactions, with its own shorter list of exceptions. This guide describes the two statutes; it is not legal advice, and for a document that matters the recipient or a lawyer should decide what signature they will accept.
Singapore's exclusion list has shrunk
We compared four dated versions of the First Schedule of Singapore's Electronic Transactions Act 2010, the list of matters the Act's signature rules do not apply to. Until 18 March 2021 it had five items. On 19 March 2021 negotiable instruments and documents of title, including bills of exchange, promissory notes and bills of lading, were deleted and moved to a new part of the Act for electronic transferable records. On 14 November 2022 the item on trusts and powers of attorney gained an exception for a lasting power of attorney under the Mental Capacity Act 2008.
What remains excluded is the creation or execution of a will; 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; any contract for the sale or other disposition of immovable property or an interest in it; and the conveyance or transfer of immovable property. Whether a particular lease, tenancy agreement or option to purchase falls within those words is a question for a lawyer, not for a signature tool.
The test has not changed
Section 8, the rule that decides whether an electronic signature counts, reads the same in all four versions. It is met if "a method is used to identify the person and to indicate that person's intention in respect of the information contained in the electronic record", and the method is either as reliable as appropriate for the purpose, in the light of all the circumstances, or proven in fact to have done that. Nothing in it concerns what the signature looks like. The parties can also agree not to accept electronic signatures, or to require more.
GovTech's documentation for Sign with Singpass gives four examples of ordinary electronic signatures: attaching an image of a handwritten signature, drawing one with a finger or stylus, typing a name at the end of a document, and ticking an "I agree" box. An image from our signature maker, a name set in a script font, is that first kind. Until September 2026 the tool's own FAQ answered "Is this signature legally valid?" with "No", which misstated the Act; it now describes the test above.
Malaysia's Act has stayed narrower
Malaysia's Electronic Commerce Act 2006 applies to commercial transactions conducted by electronic means, including those of federal and state governments. Under section 9 an electronic signature satisfies a signature requirement if it is attached to or logically associated with the message, adequately identifies the person and their approval, and is as reliable as appropriate for the purpose; section 9(2) spells out reliable as a means of signing under that person's sole control, with any later change to the signature or the document detectable. Nobody can be made to accept electronic messages without consent, though consent can be inferred from conduct.
Its Schedule excludes powers of attorney, wills and codicils, the creation of trusts, and negotiable instruments. Unlike Singapore, Malaysia excludes every power of attorney and still excludes negotiable instruments. Land is not on Malaysia's list, but land dealings have their own form rules, and nothing here suggests they can be signed electronically. Certificate-based digital signatures sit under a separate law, the Digital Signature Act 1997, whose section 62 treats a signature verified against a licensed certification authority's certificate as binding as a handwritten one. That kind of signature is data inside the file, not a picture on the page, and our PDF signature checker shows whether a PDF carries one; our guide to what the padlock proves explains what a certificate does and does not establish. The official reprints we read date from 2012 and 2006, and we could not confirm that neither Act has been amended since.
The neighbours have moved at different speeds
Indonesia's electronic information law recognises an electronic signature that meets six conditions, including signing data linked only to the signer and detectable alteration. A 2024 amendment rewrote its exceptions: the 2008 text excluded documents the law requires in writing and deeds made by notaries or land-deed officials, and the new text simply defers to whatever another statute provides. Thailand's test, in the English translation by its Electronic Transactions Development Agency, mirrors Singapore's. The Philippines, in the text we could read only from a private mirror, presumes authorship for any electronic signature, where Singapore gives that presumption only to the secure kind.
Secure signatures have kept their presumptions
Singapore's Act separates ordinary electronic signatures from secure ones. A secure electronic signature is one verified by a qualifying security procedure. The procedure must confirm the signature is unique to the signer, can identify them, was made under their sole control, and is linked to the record so that any change invalidates it. Only a secure signature carries the Act's presumptions that it is the signer's own and was affixed with the intention of signing; for any other, section 19(3) says, nothing in that part of the Act "creates any presumption relating to the authenticity and integrity" of the record or the signature.
GovTech says signatures made through Sign with Singpass are secure electronic signatures, using certificates issued by the National Certification Authority. The same documentation gives an example of what can go wrong with an image alone. On a statutory declaration, it warns, "an impersonator might mimic the declarant by placing an image of their signature that they obtained from some other source, or by typing their name".
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