New Work Pass Track and Tax Perks, Singapore’s Latest Play to Keep Asset Managers From Leaving

A tailored immigration route, a tax exemption still being finalised, and a new investment programme for hedge fund managers, all announced on the same day as Singapore moves to strengthen its position amid growing competition for asset managers and senior investment talent.

Singapore has unveiled a three part package intended to keep the country competitive as a base for asset managers, built around a new immigration track designed specifically for senior investment professionals, a proposed tax exemption on performance linked earnings, and a new Hedge Fund Investment Programme aimed at managers willing to establish or expand their presence in Singapore. Taken together, the measures address an important feature of the asset management industry, senior investment professionals are not always compensated in the same way as conventional corporate employees, while decisions about where managers establish and grow their businesses increasingly involve tax, talent, and access to capital.

The Problem With the Existing Work Pass Rules

Singapore’s Overseas Networks and Expertise Pass, generally known as the ONE Pass, requires candidates to show a fixed monthly salary of at least thirty thousand Singapore dollars sustained over the twelve months before applying, according to the Ministry of Manpower’s own eligibility criteria. It is a threshold built around conventional, fixed compensation structures.

That threshold does not always map neatly onto the asset management industry, where a meaningful share of a senior investment professional’s compensation can come from performance linked returns rather than fixed monthly salary. MAS said the new track would acknowledge that such arrangements form a significant and recurring component of compensation for individuals performing specialised fund management services, alongside fixed monthly salaries, rather than forcing every applicant through a fixed salary test built for a different kind of employee.

The Ministry of Manpower has separately noted that Financial and Insurance Services, Information and Communication, and Professional Services are already the top three sectors that ONE Pass holders are employed in, underlining how central this pass already is to Singapore’s strategy for attracting senior global talent, even before the new investment management specific track is added.

What the New Investment Management Track Actually Targets

The Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Ministry of Manpower intend to introduce the new track specifically for global leaders and senior investment professionals who contribute, or have clear potential to contribute, significantly to Singapore’s asset management industry. The government has not yet published the full eligibility criteria, with further details expected at a later stage, but the stated intent is to better reflect how compensation actually works in this industry rather than forcing every applicant through a fixed salary test built for a different kind of employee.

MAS has framed the new track as a way of attracting a relatively small pool of senior international talent capable of contributing more broadly to the growth of Singapore’s asset management industry and the jobs that develop around it.

The Tax Exemption, and Who It Actually Covers

MAS and the Ministry of Finance plan to introduce a tax exemption for qualifying profit related returns arising from the provision of fund management services to qualifying funds. In practical terms, the measure is aimed at arrangements where a corporate entity, partnership, or individual receives, directly or indirectly, a contractual share of a qualifying fund’s profits in return for providing fund management services. Ordinary salaries, bonuses, and other fixed forms of staff compensation are not the target of the exemption.

The measure is expected to take effect from the Year of Assessment 2027, with further details to be announced at Budget 2027. Qualifying funds will also need to satisfy applicable economic substance requirements, including minimum headcount conditions. For now, the direction is clear, but much of the detail is still to come.

A New Hedge Fund Investment Programme

The third piece of the package is a new Hedge Fund Investment Programme, under which MAS intends to invest with hedge fund managers that commit to establishing or expanding their presence in Singapore. The idea goes beyond attracting individual managers. MAS said the programme is also intended to strengthen the broader hedge fund ecosystem, including prime brokerages and other ancillary service providers that tend to develop around a deeper concentration of hedge fund activity. Further details on how managers will be selected and how the programme will operate have yet to be announced.

Is This About Hong Kong?

Hong Kong is inevitably part of the backdrop. Singapore and Hong Kong have long competed for asset managers, investment firms, and senior financial sector talent, and recent policy developments have brought that competition back into focus. MAS, however, has framed the latest measures more broadly around strengthening Singapore’s competitiveness as an asset management centre, rather than responding to any single rival.

The distinction matters. This is less about matching Hong Kong measure for measure, and more about making sure Singapore’s overall proposition remains competitive as the industry evolves. The latest package does that across three interconnected areas, tax, capital, and talent.

Why Announce Now, Months Before the Budget?

The timing is notable. The detailed mechanics of the proposed tax exemption are not expected until Budget 2027, yet the direction of the policy has been announced months earlier.

A manager deciding where to establish a new hedge fund, build an investment team, or relocate a senior portfolio manager may be making that decision now, not six months from now when the detailed Budget measures arrive. By signalling where policy is heading early, Singapore is giving the industry greater visibility over the environment it intends to create. For firms deciding where to put people, capital, and their next phase of growth, that visibility can matter.

What Is Still Unresolved

• The full eligibility criteria for the Investment Management Track under the ONE Pass.
• The precise scope of qualifying funds and applicable economic substance requirements for the tax exemption.
• The detailed mechanics of the Hedge Fund Investment Programme, including how participating managers will be selected and investments structured.
• Whether other financial centres, including Hong Kong, introduce further measures as competition for asset management activity continues.

None of the three measures will transform Singapore’s asset management industry overnight. What they do show is a willingness to keep adjusting the country’s proposition as competition for asset managers, capital, and talent evolves.

There is also a logic to introducing the measures together. One addresses the tax treatment of qualifying performance related returns, another puts capital behind managers willing to build in Singapore, and the third seeks to better accommodate the way senior investment professionals are actually compensated. Taken together, the message to the industry is fairly direct, Singapore does not intend to assume that its existing advantages will be enough on their own.

Sources: Monetary Authority of Singapore and Ministry of Manpower, August 2026. Further details of the proposed measures, including the tax exemption, Hedge Fund Investment Programme, and ONE Pass Investment Management Track, remain subject to subsequent announcements. This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal, tax, regulatory, or immigration advice.