News Details

CATEGORY: NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS,

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Public Announcement issued on 18 June 2014

In Jan 2014, the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) brought 104 charges against the company known as Data Register Pte Ltd for failing to display the company name (52 charges) and registration number (52 charges) in its correspondences with companies in November 2013. The case is now before the State Court. Concurrently, ACRA referred the case to the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) for their investigation.
 
The requirement to state a company’s name and registration number in business correspondences is mandated under section 144 of the Companies Act. This is to ensure that members of public are aware of the identity of the corporate entity that issued the letter in question, and to prevent entities from impersonating or purporting to represent another company or government agency. When in doubt, a member of public may conduct a free search on the company via ACRA's website. This search will reveal if the company is registered; and if so, its business address, registration number as well as its compliance rating with basic requirements of the Companies Act. Further corporate information, such as the identity of shareholders and directors and the financial status of the company, may also be purchased for a small fee.
 
While organisations can seek to collect business information from companies through private arrangements, the statutory duty to file and provide business information under the Companies Act is owed only to ACRA, the national regulator of business entities and public accountants in Singapore.

Companies that need to file or update their records with ACRA, should do so only through Bizfile, ACRA’s online filing and information retrieval system, at http://www.bizfile.gov.sg. If in doubt, companies can contact ACRA at: 6248 6028 or www.acra.gov.sg/enquiry.

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