Summary of responses to consultation feedback on digital communications and regulatory enhancements

        The Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) are responding to the consultation feedback on the proposed legislative amendments under the ACRA (Registry and Regulatory Enhancements) Bill (the Bill).

2.    The key proposed legislative amendments aim to:

a.     Facilitate digital communications with businesses and other stakeholders by allowing statutory correspondences and notices (other than summons) to be sent to and accessed via a digital mailbox; and requiring business entities, position holders, shareholders and members to maintain updated email addresses with ACRA;

b.     Improve filing convenience and data accuracy by empowering the Registrar to use information from specified government agencies to keep ACRA’s registers up to date;

c.     Enhance the accuracy of the registers of directors by empowering the Registrar to reflect the disqualification status of individuals for all types of disqualifications under the Companies Act (CA); and

d.     Streamline the financial reporting requirements for foreign companies registered under the CA.

3.     The key feedback received was generally supportive of the proposed legislative amendments. Responses from MOF and ACRA are in Annex A. Feedback received on areas not under the scope of the Bill may be considered by MOF and ACRA in future reviews.  

4.     The Bill will be presented in Parliament in May 2024. 

5.     MOF and ACRA would like to thank all respondents for your feedback in this public consultation.