What you need to know about REGISTER OF REGISTRABLE CONTROLLERS (RORC)

Filing the RORC with ACRA

  • All companies/LLPs are required to file their RORC information with ACRA using the “Update Register of Registrable Controllers” eService via BizFile+.
  • Entities that fail to lodge/update their RORC with ACRA may be fined $5,000.
  • Please note that this is a separate requirement from your Annual Return / Declaration filing.

What is the RORC?

Since 31 Mar 2017, companies, foreign companies and LLPs (unless exempted) are required to maintain a Register of Registrable Controllers (RORC).

The Register of Registrable Controllers (RORC) is a register containing the particulars of the company’s or LLP’s registrable controller(s), also commonly known as beneficial owner(s).

Who is a Registrable Controller IRO?

You are an RC if you:
(a) have an interest in 25% of shares in a company; or
(b) hold – 25% of members’ voting rights in a company; or
(c) can exercise significant influence or control over a company/ LLP.

Setting up and maintaining the RORC

• The RORC must be set up within 30 cidys after the company/ LLP has been incorporated/ registered.
• The company/ LLP must send notices to persons that may be potential controllers to get their confirmation and to verify their particulars.
• The RORC can be kept at the entity’s registered office address, or at the address of the entity’s appointed Registered Filing Agent.
• The same RORC information must also be filed with ACRA via BizFile+, ACRA’s online filing portal.

What should a RC do?

• Respond to the notices from the company/ LLP and verify your particulars.
• Provide information of other possible RCs to the entity.
• Update the entity if there are changes to your particulars.

RORC 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.

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) within 2 business days after the RORC has been setup, or after any update have been done to their own RORC.

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.

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.

There are some entities that are exempted from keeping a RORC and need not lodge any information with ACRA central RORC. Please refer to the types of exempted entities (PDF, 96KB).

Exempted entities will have to notify ACRA that they are exempted.

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.

Through your Registered Filing Agent

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

All companies, foreign companies and LLPs, unless exempted, are required to lodge the same information in their RORC with ACRA’s central RORC within 2 business days after the RORC has been setup.

If there is any update to the controllers’ information, companies, foreign companies and LLPs must lodge the change with ACRA within 2 business days after updating the information on their RORC at their end.

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