Update as of 24 July 2020

The new requirements for companies and limited liability partnerships (LLPs) to lodge their Register of Registrable Controllers (RORC) information with ACRA will take effect from 30 July 2020.

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.

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 (PDF, 69KB) 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.

Source: ACRA

 

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

Yours Sincerely,
The editorial team at Singapore Secretary Services

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