Compliance you can audit
Structured. Confidential.
Compliant.
Expert networks work only when the rules are explicit. Every engagement on Retail Experts Network runs inside a framework built on the standards of the expert-network industry, adapted to Singapore law and to the realities of retail and F&B in South East Asia.
Why this page exists
The thing being sold is trust.
When a fund researches a listed retail group, when a multinational scopes a market entry, or when a landlord's competitor asks about leasing terms, the risk is not that the expert knows too little — it is that they say something they were never entitled to say.
Our framework exists to make that failure structurally unlikely, and to make it evident to your reviewers before you sign anything. The record of who signed what, who was screened for which conflict and who attested to compliance after each engagement is not administrative overhead. It is the product.
Published documents
Client Engagement Terms and our Statement of Work template are provided on request before contracting.
Governing law
Singapore law throughout. Disputes go to good-faith negotiation, then mediation at the Singapore Mediation Centre, then SIAC arbitration — single arbitrator, seat Singapore, in English.
The framework
Eight controls, applied to every engagement.
1 · Binding membership terms, renewed annually
Every expert signs Network Membership Terms before their profile goes live, covering confidentiality, conflicts of interest, prohibited conduct and anti-bribery. Terms are re-signed each year alongside a refresher compliance tutorial, so obligations never go stale.
2 · Confidentiality and MNPI
Experts may never disclose material non-public information about any listed company, trade secrets or proprietary information of current or former employers, or anything received under a duty of confidence. In retail terms that explicitly includes supplier cost prices and rebate structures, lease rates and landlord incentives under NDA, franchise economics, unannounced store openings or closures, private-label margin structures and loyalty-programme data. If an expert is unsure whether something is confidential, the rule is to treat it as confidential.
3 · Conflict screening before matching
Experts must decline or discontinue engagements about their current employer or its direct competitors absent written consent. Former auditors stand aside from entities audited in the last three years; recent finance-department staff do not discuss that company's financials; anyone connected to a live IPO or takeover process declines until it concludes. Material financial interests relevant to objectivity must be disclosed or the engagement declined.
4 · No investment or legal advice
Experts share operational insight only — no recommendations on buying, selling or valuing any security, and no legal advice. No adviser-client, attorney-client or fiduciary relationship is created with REN. This protects investor clients and corporate clients alike.
5 · Anti-bribery and corruption
Experts must comply with the Prevention of Corruption Act 1960 (Singapore) — which covers private-sector bribery, and so reaches supplier kickbacks, slotting fees and buyer gratification directly — and acknowledge FCPA and UK Bribery Act exposure when serving multinational clients. Current government officials in a position to influence relevant policy, tenders or regulation are ineligible for membership.
6 · Engagements run through REN
All engagements are arranged and administered through the network. Direct exchange of contact details requires written consent, and for 12 months after an introduction neither side may contract around the network without consent or the agreed buy-out. Off-platform consultations are not eligible for payment.
7 · Attestation tied to payment
Submitting a payment request constitutes an attestation that no confidential information was disclosed and no third-party obligation was breached. REN may withhold payment during a bona fide dispute and recover payment for engagements involving violations.
8 · Compliance safe harbour
If an expert discontinues an engagement because continuing would risk a breach, and promptly notifies compliance, they may still claim payment for the full time set aside. Caution costs us money and saves everyone else a great deal more.
How it is operated
Where the record comes from.
Rules that are not operationalised are decoration. Each control above corresponds to a step someone actually takes.
Onboarding
Invitation → profile and credentials → background and reference checks → compliance tutorial and quiz → e-signed Network Terms → profile live. Nothing is skipped for speed.
Annual renewal
On each membership anniversary, an automated re-signature and refresher tutorial. Lapsed members are withdrawn from matching until they complete it.
Per engagement
Brief received → conflict screen with self-declarations referencing the conflict rules → expert accepts → engagement runs → payment request carries the compliance attestation.
Records
Signed terms, completed tutorials, conflict declarations and attestations are retained. This is the trail we show an enterprise client's legal team on request.
What this gives a client
Rights you can actually enforce.
Direct enforcement
The Network Membership Terms are made for the benefit of clients, who may enforce them directly under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 2001 (Singapore).
Engagement-specific confirmations
Clients may require additional confirmations for a particular engagement — an extra restriction, a named exclusion — which become binding supplements to the expert's terms.
Injunctive relief
Breaches of confidentiality or non-circumvention may be restrained by injunction, because damages alone are an inadequate remedy for disclosure.
IP assignment
Deliverables created for a client under a paid engagement are assigned to the client on full payment. Experts retain only pre-existing general know-how.
Your NDA, if you prefer
We will sign your standard NDA rather than insist on ours. Send it with your brief and we will return it before the discovery call.
Chaperoned calls
Where a client wishes to record or chaperone a consultation, it is disclosed to the expert in advance. Experts may not record consultations themselves.
Personal data
PDPA, in practice.
Personal data is collected with consent for stated purposes, disclosed only to the parties who need it for matching and engagement administration, protected with access restricted on a need-to-know basis, and retained only as long as those purposes require. Consent may be withdrawn at any time by writing to our Data Protection Officer, and we maintain a data breach response process aligned to the notification timelines under the Personal Data Protection Act 2012.
Where data is processed on infrastructure outside Singapore, we take the steps the PDPA requires to ensure comparable protection, including contractual protections with our hosting and processing providers.
Compliance & Data Protection Officer
For conflict questions, framework reviews, and anything an expert is unsure about. Experts are expected to use it, and we would rather field a needless question than miss a real one. Data-protection requests under the PDPA reach the same mailbox.
Retail Experts Network Pte. Ltd.
60 Paya Lebar Road, #06-28
Paya Lebar Square
Singapore 409051
A note on maturity. Retail Experts Network is a young firm in beta. The framework above is fully drafted and applied from our first engagement, and the published terms are working documents under review by Singapore counsel. If your procurement process needs something we have not yet published — an insurance certificate, a security questionnaire, a specific policy — ask, and we will tell you plainly whether we have it.
Have your reviewers read it before you engage.
We would rather answer the hard questions now than discover the mismatch mid-project.