Response to public consultation on proposals relating to personal data collection & use filing convenience & digital correspondences & other proposed amendments

Detailed description

1. The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) invited the public to provide feedback on proposals relating to personal data collection and use, filing convenience and digital correspondence, and other proposed amendments¹.

2. The key feedback received on the following proposals, and ACRA’s responses to the feedback, are set out in the Annex: 

   1. Partially mask the identification number of all individuals in ACRA’s registers which are made available to the public and introduce a “contact address” as the default address of individuals that will be shown to the public, instead of the individual’s residential address;

   2. Provide flexibility for ACRA to specify personal data relating to individuals that may need to be collected and to introduce a tiered framework to calibrate the disclosure of personal data;

   3. Standardise the references to the “name” of individuals in ACRA-administered legislation;

   4. Allow ACRA’s correspondences and notices (other than summons), to be delivered to and accessed by individuals and businesses via a virtual mailbox;

   5. Introduce legislative provisions to require position holders and shareholders to provide and update email addresses and mobile numbers, and business entities to provide and update their business email addresses;

   6. Provide for the power for ACRA to be able to draw data from specified government agencies for the purpose of filing, and to be able to use data from specified entities to verify information on ACRA’s register;

   7. Clarify the Registrar’s power to update the register of directors based on bankruptcy information he or she obtains from the Insolvency Office of the Ministry of Law under section 173F of the Companies Act 1967 (CA);

   8. Grant the Registrar the power to update changes in appointments of directors and secretaries to enhance the accuracy of information in the registers of directors and secretaries;

   9. Make a class exemption order under section 202(2) of the CA to relieve all public non-listed companies and private companies from disclosing directors’ interests in shares in, or debentures of, the company and other body corporates, where all shareholders give consent for the non-disclosure, and such consents are to be filed with ACRA; and

   10. Allow foreign companies preparing financial statements in accordance with accounting standards that are substantially similar to the accounting standards prescribed by the Accounting Standards Committee or in accordance with the applicable accounting standards in the foreign company’s jurisdiction of incorporation, to file these financial statements with ACRA, and where the foreign company does not prepare a set of financial statements, they will file the unaudited summary financial statements prescribed by ACRA.

3. ACRA will publish a summary of feedback received on the rest of the proposals in the public consultations, together with ACRA’s responses, in due course.

4. ACRA would like to thank all respondents who have provided their feedback to the public consultations.

¹ For more details and the public consultation documents, please refer to Public Consultation on Proposed Legislative Amendments Relating to Data, Digitalisation and Corporate Transparency for a Trusted and Vibrant Business Environment in Singapore and Public Consultation on Proposed Amendments to the Companies Act.

Annex

Responses to key feedback on proposals relating to personal data collection and use, filing convenience and digital correspondence and other proposed amendments [PDF, 114 KB]