Eric started his legal career as a litigation lawyer, where he focused primarily on commercial and property law litigation. He took a year off in 1997 to do his postgraduate studies in London, and resumed a legal practice centred on banking law issues upon returning to Singapore.

In late 1999, Eric joined the legal department of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), where he was responsible for advising MAS officials on legal issues relating to banking regulation. In this capacity, he helped to advise and formulate various regulatory policies, including the 2001 legislative amendments to the Banking Act.

During his tenure at the legal department of the MAS, Eric also concurrently taught law at the National University of Singapore as an Adjunct Senior Fellow. He also helped to co-author the Finance & Banking volume of Halsbury’s Laws of Singapore.

In 2003, Eric was seconded to the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, where as a Visiting Fellow, he conducted research and wrote a paper on the law relating to bank fund transfers (published in the Singapore Academy of Law Journal).

In late 2003, Eric vacated his position as Assistant General Counsel to assume a new role within the MAS as Head of International & Regional Relations. In this role, he was responsible for developing and coordinating the policies of the MAS in the international arena, particularly in relation to fighting money-laundering and terrorist financing. Eric also served as the MAS representative in the Singapore government’s delegation to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and to the Asia Pacific Group on Moneylaundering (APG). From 2004 to 2005, he served as one of two financial experts in the FATF team for the mutual evaluation of Norway’s anti-money laundering regime, and was also a member of the FATF contact group established to advise China on technical issues relating to China’s admission as a member of the FATF.

In 2006, Eric joined American Express Bank as Regional Director for Compliance & Ethics. In this role, he was responsible for overseeing the compliance & ethics policies and programs of American Express Bank in the Asia Pacific region.