• Bankruptcy records serve to ensure debtors pay their debts and prevent them from absconding.
• Bankruptcy records are directly managed by the Insolvency and Public Trustee’s Office of the Ministry of Law.
• In 1995, Singapore implemented the Bankruptcy Act. The Act was amended in 1999 to accommodate the transformation of Singapore’s economy into a knowledge-based one and encourage entrepreneurship in the high-tech sector. The amended Act primarily provided assistance to debtors. In the official statement announcing the amendment of the Act, the Government stated that bankruptcy should not be stigmatised, in the hope of boosting the confidence of potential entrepreneurs.
• Singapore’s bankruptcy laws are primarily modelled after similar British laws.
• Bankrupt persons face many restrictions in their daily lives, such as needing to apply for permission before overseas travel and disclosing their bankruptcy status when obtaining credit.
• In 2016, Singapore introduced the Differentiated Discharge Framework to help lift bankrupt persons out of bankruptcy.
• After being discharged from bankruptcy, a bankrupt’s information remains on the public bankruptcy records for five years before being erased. However, if they are unable to pay the Target Contribution, their bankruptcy record becomes permanent.
• On 30 July 2020, the Bankruptcy Act was repealed upon the initiation of the Insolvency, Restructuring, and Dissolution Act (IRDA) 2018. Relevant provisions from the Bankruptcy Act were revised and transferred to the IRDA.

A 31-year-old taxi driver, who has been in the bankruptcy records for the last two years, returned S$235,500 in cash left behind in his taxi by a Thai businessman the day before yesterday. He declined any cash reward. His integrity won praise from the businessman and many netizens. (Lianhe Zaobao, 11/7/2016)

破产记录 (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan)