On January 10th 2022, Parliament passed the Corporate Registers (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act. This amends the Companies Act and Limited Partnerships (LLP) Act.

 

What are the changes?

Both local and foreign Singapore registered companies will be required to keep a non-public register of nominee shareholders and their nominators. The register will need to be updated within seven days of being informed by the nominee.

 

Previously, there was no need to keep a register of nominee shareholders and their nominators. If a person nominates someone to hold the shares on his or her behalf, that person is a nominator. Typically, the nominee shareholder would vote in a manner that is in line with the wishes of the nominator. Therefore, the nominator would be the individual who truly owns the shares of the company and has voting rights. The need to know the true beneficial owner of a company’s shares puts Singapore’s guidelines in line with international standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

 

Once the regulations kick in, we will be contacting all our clients to ensure that their respective entities are compliant with the new requirements.

If you have any queries regarding these upcoming changes, you can email us at [email protected].

 

When in doubt, seek legal advice or consult an experienced ACRA Filing Agent.

 

Yours Sincerely,
The editorial team at Singapore Secretary Services

For more useful articles and videos, visit the Singapore Secretary Services resource page.

Join our Telegram Channel to get updates to all our latest articles: https://t.me/SGSecretaryServices

Do visit the Company Essentials Workshop YouTube Channel to view useful videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/CompanyEssentialsWorkshop