Implementation of a Central Register of Controllers

Current Requirements

Since 31 March 2017, companies, foreign companies and limited liability partnerships are required to keep a register of registrable controllers (RORC) either in their registered office address or at the office of their authorised filing agent. Registrable controllers are also commonly known as the beneficial owners of the entities. A RORC would contain the following information listed in the Section “What information must be lodged with ACRA” below.

New Requirements

With effect from 30 July 2020, in addition to keeping a RORC at their end, entities will have to lodge the same information in their RORC with ACRA’s central register (ACRA central RORC) by 29 September 2020.

For entities that wish to perform this lodgement with ACRA on their own, please follow the steps that can be found in the Section “Lodging RORC information with ACRA” below. Alternatively, if entities would like their filing agent to handle their lodgement, they can authorise their filing agent to do so.  

In future, entities (or their authorised filing agent) will have to update the ACRA central RORC within 2 business days after any update they have done to their own RORC.

ACRA has issued Practice Direction No. 3 of 2020 on the requirement to lodge registrable controllers’ information in the Central Register of Controllers maintained by ACRA.

The implementation of an ACRA central RORC is part of ACRA’s on-going efforts to uphold Singapore’s reputation as a trusted financial hub, and to further enhance the transparency of ownership and control of corporate entities. Information in the ACRA central RORC will only be made available to law enforcement agencies for the purpose of administering or enforcing the laws under their purview (e.g. investigation of money laundering offences). Members of the public will not have access to the information in the ACRA central RORC.

Entities Exempted from maintaining RORC

There are some entities that are exempted from keeping a RORC and need not lodge any information with ACRA central RORC. The types of exempted entities are listed here.

Exempted entities will have to notify ACRA that they are exempted by taking the steps below.

What you need to do

  1. Log on to BizFile+ with your CorpPass.
  2. Click on “e-Services” > “Others” > “Update Register of Registrable Controllers”.
  3. Select “Yes” that the entity is exempted and proceed to submit the transaction.
 

What information must be lodged with ACRA?

The RORC information required for ACRA’s Central Register of Controllers is the same as the existing RORC information required under Part 2 of the Companies (Register of controllers and Nominee directors) Regulations 2017 and paragraph 3 of the Limited Liability Partnerships (Register of Controllers) Regulations 2017.

For controllers who are individuals:

  1. Full name;
  2. Aliases, if any;
  3. Residential address;
  4. Nationality;
  5. Identity card number or passport number;
  6. Date of birth;
  7. Date of becoming a controller; and
  8. Date of cessation as a controller, if applicable.

For controllers that are corporate entities:

  1. Name;
  2. Unique entity number, if any;
  3. Address of registered office;
  4. Legal form of the corporate controller, if applicable;
  5. Jurisdiction where the corporate controller is formed of incorporated and under which law, if applicable;
  6. Name of authority in which the corporate controller is formed or incorporated, if applicable;
  7. Identification number or registration number issued to the corporate controller when it was formed or incorporated, if applicable;
  8. Date of becoming a controller; and
  9. Date of cessation as a controller, if applicable.

For further information, please refer to the How to Guide on 'Setting up maintaining Register of Registrable Controllers.'

Lodging RORC information with ACRA

Through your Registered Filing Agent

You can instruct and authorise your RFA to perform this lodgement for you with ACRA.

Self-submission

If you wish to lodge the RORC information with ACRA on your own as a position holder (i.e., directors and secretaries of company/partners and managers of LLPs), you can do so via BizFile+ (www.bizfile.gov.sg), ACRA’s online filing portal. The filing process has been kept simple after taking into account feedback from corporate service providers and some companies.

What you need to do

  1. Ensure that the information maintained in your own RORC is accurate and up-to-date before you lodge the same information with ACRA.
  2. Log on to BizFile+ with your CorpPass.
  3. Click on “e-Services” > “Others” > “Update Register of Registrable Controllers”.
  4. Select “No” to indicate that the entity is not exempted from the requirements, and then proceed with completing the e-form before submitting the transaction.

There are no fees payable for lodging RORC information with ACRA.

Timeline to lodge RORC information with ACRA

Under the law, all companies, foreign companies and LLPs, unless exempted, are required to file the information in their existing RORC with ACRA’s Central Register of Controllers, within 30 days from 30 July 2020. In view that Singapore has just exited the Circuit Breaker and to assist business entities to ease into the resumption of normal business activities, ACRA will allow entities to file their RORC information with ACRA by 29 September 2020.

Making subsequent changes to your RORC information

If there is any update to the controllers’ information, companies, foreign companies and LLPs must lodge the change with ACRA within two business days after updating the information on their RORC at their end. The update can be lodged via BizFile+ using the same transaction “Update Register of Registrable Controllers”.

Frequently Asked Questions on RORC

Please click here to access the list of FAQs.

Help Resources

Please click here to access the help resources available to guide companies, foreign companies and LLPs to comply with the requirement.

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