Banking & Finance (Corporate Finance, Project Finance, Trade Finance & Syndicated Lending), Mergers & Acquisitions, Fintech, Market Entry & Joint Ventures, Venture Capital & Fundraising, General Corporate & Commercial, Regulatory Compliance & Licensing, Corporate Governance, Restructuring & Reorganization, Crisis Management
Industries
Financial Services, Fintech, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Trading & Industrial, FMCG, Digital Business, E-Commerce, Crypto and Digital Assets
Chandra is the Managing Partner of Foster and heads its Banking, Finance and Fintech Practice Group and also spearheads the firm’s international affairs and global networking compartment. Chandra’s main areas of practice cover banking and finance, fintech, mergers and acquisitions, general corporate and commercial, TMT (Technology, Media & Telecommunications) and digital economy, spanning e-commerce, payment services, crypto and digital assets.
He has more than 14 years of experience advising global enterprises, entrepreneurs and start-ups on their transactions and expansion to Indonesia, where he has successfully assisted multinational clients in highly regulated sectors such as financial services (banking, multi finance, fintech, insurance), healthcare, manufacturing, trading and information technology with the structuring and execution of their investment plans, financing deals and corporate actions; setting up operations, shareholding and corporate structures; entering into joint ventures and partnership with local partners; advising on regulatory compliance, government relations and stakeholder engagement strategies, including securing the relevant statutory licenses to operate.
Before establishing Foster Legal, he worked at several prominent corporate law firms, one of which was affiliated to an international law firm, where he gained valuable hands-on experience advising and working with international banks and financial services in a wide array of banking and finance transactions within the realm of corporate financing, syndicated lending, structured finance, trade finance, acquisition finance, APLMA facilities and debt financing.
Over the years, Chandra assists and advises numerous domestic and multinational fintech enterprises including early and late stage tech startups in relation to their product design and launching, compliance management, ecosystem partnership, corporate governance, business process reengineering, risk management and regulatory affairs in a variety of business models, such as, among others, Peer-to-Peer Lending, Digital Banking, Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL), Earned Wage Access (EWA), Payment Gateway, Remittance, E-Wallet and E-Money, Equity Crowdfunding, Insurtech, E-Commerce, Crypto Trading, Blockchain and Digital Assets, E-Logistics, Embedded Finance, Aggregator, Rent-to-Own, Credit Scoring and E-KYC.
Known for his profound understanding of the regulations, industry best practices, including commercial, operational and technical aspects of a diverse range of financial services, as well as the perspectives of Indonesian lawmakers and regulators in Indonesia's financial services sector, he has successfully assisted numerous foreign investors in navigating through the regulatory, business/investment and political landscapes and the bureaucratic complexities in this highly regulated sector to achieve their goals.
His extensive list of notable clients include, among others, Standard Chartered Bank (United Kingdom), Global Innovation Fund (United Kingdom), SBI Holdings (Japan), Paytm (India), Kasikornbank (Thailand), Maybank Islamic (Malaysia), NS Bluescope (Australia), JLG Industries (United States), Dover Corporation (Fortune 500 company – United States), PerkinElmer Inc (United States), Grassroots Business Investors Fund (United States), Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics Inc (United States), Petrofac International LLC (United Arab Emirates), Loesche GmbH (Germany), Alstom (France) and Advance Intelligence Group (Singapore). This includes other leading local clients that have enjoyed his legal services namely AWS Indonesia, PT AIA Financial, PT Alstom Grid Indonesia, PT Bank Rabobank International Indonesia, PT Bank Commonwealth, PT Bank Neo Commerce Tbk, PT Krakatau Posco Chemtech and PT Krakatau Industrial Estate Cilegon.
Throughout his career, Chandra held various executive positions as Chief Legal Officer, Legal Director and General Counsel at several leading fintech companies in Asia where he worked with the founders and the management in fundraising transactions, corporate actions and day-to-day legal matters, and assisted them with license applications, rectification of compliance and strategic communication with regulatory authorities. Various domestic and foreign start-ups have also enjoyed his legal services in the early days of their operation, particularly in relation to their market entry, business launching, investment structuring, product compliance and procurement of licenses, including, among many others, Gradana, Pintek, SamaKita, AsetKu, Wagely, Kredit Pintar, CicilSewa, DanaBijak, Kredito, Doomo, BPS Credit Scoring, KawanCicil and various Southeast Asian fintech start-ups namely Brick, PeerHive, Matchmove, Jenfi, etc.
As one of the earliest practitioners in this field who witnessed and directly contributed to the formulation and development of the first fintech legislations, directives and regulatory framework in the country, Chandra is acknowledged by industry leaders, key stakeholders and prominent clients in banking, finance and fintech industries, for his ability and creativity to shape effective legal strategies and craft curated, workable solutions to solve the most critical challenges of his growing global clientele in a way that provides clarity around the risk they are facing while at the same time gives them confidence in their chosen options and path towards achieving their business goals.
Aside from his solid lawyering career, Chandra served as adjunct lecturer at several educational institutions such as the Faculty of Law of Trisakti University, UBS Business College, the Faculty of Economics of Trisakti University and ESMOD Fashion Design & Business School.
