Singapore Corporate Register — What's Public

Singapore corporate register: what buyers actually mean by public

In Singapore, the phrase singapore corporate register almost always means the national business register kept by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, known as ACRA. ACRA describes itself as the national regulator of business registration and financial reporting, with a mission to foster a trusted business environment so buyers and sellers inside and outside Singapore can transact with confidence and know who they are dealing with, as set out in the Ministerial Statement on NRIC numbers in the BizFile service. For a buyer, that mission matters because public access is deliberate, not a leak: the register exists so a counterparty check is possible before money moves.

Scale helps to calibrate expectations. An ACRA register snapshot via data.gov.sg, monthly, recently showed 2,124,508 total entities, with 624,271 live companies and 523,699 struck-off records in the October 2026 cut. The open file behind that snapshot is the Entities Registered with ACRA dataset on data.gov.sg, which reports about 2.1M rows in CSV form, updated monthly on day 16, with the October 2026 refresh as the visible vintage. Buyers who browse Singapore company records are seeing a friendlier front end to that same register spine, keyed on the Unique Entity Number, or UEN.

A registry mirror alone does not tell a buyer what to do next. The practical map has three layers that look similar but answer different questions. The open bulk list answers whether a name and UEN exist and what street and postal code were registered. The free BizFile entity search answers whether that entity is the one a buyer was quoted, before any payment. Paid BizFile information products answer who controls it, what capital stands behind it, what activities were filed, and whether charges or filing gaps change the price or payment terms. Confusing those layers is how buyers either overpay for data they do not need or under-check a vendor they are about to pay.

• Open bulk layer: UEN, entity name, status, entity type, issue date, registered street and postal code, for screening and matching.
• Free search layer: find the business by entity name or UEN on BizFile, confirm identity and status, then decide whether to buy.
• Paid extract layer: Business Profile and related products for directors, shareholders, capital, activities, compliance and lodged documents.
• Adjacent public checks: GST registration, sector licences and court or tender footprints, which live outside ACRA but complete the picture.

Free layer: what you can see without paying

BizFile is the front door. ACRA instructs buyers to use BizFile entity search to find the business by its entity name or UEN and then add its profile to a cart only if a paid extract is needed, per the official guide to buying a Business Profile via BizFile. A buyer can run that lookup as a guest or log in with Singpass as an individual or Corppass as a business user, with login mainly adding order history and extra features rather than changing the underlying register facts. For vendor triage in places like Tuas, Jurong, Woodlands or Changi Business Park, that free step catches the common failure first: wrong entity, similarly named entity, or a deregistered UEN quoted on a stale invoice.

The bulk free source is the data.gov.sg open file. It exposes eight columns: UEN, issuance agency description, UEN status description, entity name, entity type description, UEN issue date, registered street name and registered postal code, under an open data licence for research and commercial use. The explorer view shows the mix buyers should expect: about 30.1 percent Registered and 69.9 percent Deregistered across all time, with Sole Proprietorship and Partnership at about 49.3 percent, Local Company at about 48.2 percent, plus Limited Liability Partnership and Foreign Company Branch making up the balance. The file is large, about 222.7 MB, which is why most buyers prefer a searchable view such as company search by UEN or the UEN check tool instead of downloading the whole CSV.

GST status is the other free check buyers often skip. Singapore keeps GST registration with IRAS, not ACRA, and IRAS offers a public GST-registered business search by business name, UEN or GST registration number. Practical guides based on that IRAS tool note that the result shows whether the business is currently registered and the effective date of registration, which is the detail a buyer needs when a supplier adds GST to an invoice, as explained in the GST registration check walkthrough. Oxaide mirrors that workflow in the GST check tool and the GST registration check guide.

Free data proves existence, not control. The open eight columns do not name directors or shareholders, do not show paid-up capital, do not list charges, and do not include financial statements. The free entity search similarly helps a buyer pick the correct UEN but does not replace the paid profile when the question is who can sign, who owns the shares, or whether the registered activities match the goods being sold. A buyer who stops at free has screened for typos and status, which is useful, but has not yet done counterparty diligence.

• Match the UEN on the quotation, invoice and bank payee details before checking anything else.
• Confirm status is Registered and entity type fits the deal, such as Local Company versus Sole Proprietorship.
• Compare registered street and postal code with the operating address on the proposal, since they often differ.
• Run GST registration separately, because ACRA status never proves GST status.
• Check recency via new company filings and struck-off records when age or continuity matters.

Paid layer: BizFile information products and the S$5.50 Business Profile

The workhorse paid product is the Business Profile. ACRA lists the cost at S$5.50, with payment by credit card, debit card or online banking, processing within 15 minutes, delivery to the email given at purchase, and no refunds for incorrect purchases, according to the official buying guide. Independent corporate services guides cite the same S$5.50 figure for the standard PDF profile, including the IntraCorp Business Profile explainer and the Osome BizFile guide, which both describe the profile as the paid extract carrying registration number, name, activities, incorporation date and owner or officer detail. For most small purchases, that single document is the whole paid budget.

What sits inside matters more than the price. The Business Profile is a snapshot of key information registered with ACRA: company name, UEN, registered address, business activities with SSIC codes, incorporation or registration date, current directors, shareholders, secretaries and appointment dates, share capital structure, recent filing history and any charges flag where applicable. Corporate secretarial practice treats it as proof of state for banks, landlords, enterprise buyers and investors, which is why lenders in Raffles Place or Mapletree Business City still ask for a fresh copy even when a buyer has already seen a free listing. Oxaide explains the use cases further in ACRA Business Profile and BizFile company search.

BizFile sells more than that one PDF. ACRA groups the paid catalogue as Business Profile, People Profile, Corporate Compliance and Financial Profile, Extracts, Certificates and Registers, as listed on the official buying business information page. Extracts cover lodged documents such as the constitution and annual returns or financial statements where filed. Certificates provide certified standing or production copies. People Profiles trace an individual across appointments. ACRA also points buyers who want scoring or monitoring to authorised information service providers rather than treating BizFile as a credit bureau. Fees beyond the S$5.50 Business Profile vary by product, so buyers should confirm the live figure at BizFile checkout rather than relying on a blog price table.

• S$5.50 is usually enough for a low-value supplier, tenancy guarantor or one-off contractor check.
• Add a People Profile when the same individual signs for several entities or when directorship overlap is the risk.
• Add Extracts when the constitution, share structure or filed financials change the commercial terms.
• Use authorised bureaus for scores and monitoring, not BizFile, since the register sells facts rather than ratings.

What stays gated: identity numbers, addresses and financial depth

The most misunderstood gate is identity numbers. From 9 to 13 December 2024, the new BizFile free People Search briefly returned full NRIC numbers, which prompted public concern, suspension of that search, and a revised service from 28 December 2024 where search results no longer show NRIC numbers at all, whether masked or unmasked, as recorded in the 8 January 2025 Ministerial Statement. Buyers searching by a common name such as Tan or Lim now see name matches without the quick NRIC tie-breaker that older guides describe, which makes the UEN and the paid profile more important for disambiguation.

Full identification detail did not disappear, it moved behind payment and purpose. Under the prior portal, a name search returned masked NRIC numbers and a buyer could then pay for the complete set for a chosen individual, including full NRIC number and address, because full identification was treated as needed for contracting certainty and regulatory processes. ACRA restated that rationale in December 2024 when it explained that members of the public who transact with a business may need to confirm the identity of individuals tied to it. For privacy, individuals who prefer not to expose a home address may lodge a different contact address, such as an office address, on the ACRA database. A buyer should therefore read the address on a profile as the registered contact address, not proof of where anyone sleeps.

Financial depth is similarly gated. The free eight-column open file carries no revenue, profit, assets, liabilities or audit detail, and the free entity search does not either. Financial statements and annual returns, where the company is required to file them, sit in paid Extracts, while the Corporate Compliance and Financial Profile summarises compliance and financial signals for buyers who need more than a status flag. That design explains a common disappointment: a buyer downloads the 2.1M-row list, searches for a Jurong engineering contractor, and finds only street and postal code. The money questions were never in that file.

Ownership has a softer gate. The Business Profile names registered shareholders and officers, which resolves most SME supplier questions, but it does not draw a verified ultimate-owner graph across holding companies, nominees or foreign parents. A buyer tracing control through two or three tiers needs one profile per Singapore entity in the chain, plus foreign registry data where a parent sits outside Singapore. Practical guides on company background checks and legitimacy checks treat that multi-profile walk as normal for larger deals, not as a sign the register failed.

• NRIC numbers: absent from free People Search results since the December 2024 revision.
• Residential addresses: may be replaced by an alternate contact address at the holder request.
• Financials: only via paid Extracts or profiles, never in the open bulk columns.
• Charges and filings: summary flags in the profile, full documents via Extracts.
• Group control: registered holders are shown, full beneficial chains need entity-by-entity work.

Buyer workflow: check a Singapore counterparty without overpaying

Consider a fictional example, explicitly fictional: a buyer at a Tampines distributor is offered 60-day terms by a fictional packaging vendor quoting a UEN on its letterhead. The buyer first pastes that UEN into the UEN check tool and opens the matching record under company records, confirming the legal name, Local Company type and Registered status. That two-minute match stops the most expensive mistake, which is diligencing the wrong similarly named business while the real contracting party stays unchecked.

Singapore context shapes the next clicks. The UEN is the join key across ACRA, IRAS and procurement paperwork, while SSIC activity codes show what the company said it does when it filed. Registered address may be a corporate secretary office on Anson Road, Robinson Road or Beach Road, while the warehouse sits in Senoko or Penjuru, so a mismatch alone is not fraud. Status wording matters too: Registered versus Deregistered in the open file, Live versus Struck Off in curated views, and incorporation vintage in new company data when a supposedly established supplier turns out to be months old.

Cost discipline is simple: spend free effort first, then S$5.50 once, then deeper products only when a red flag or deal size justifies it. A buyer who runs free UEN, status, address and GST checks will often find there is nothing left worth paying to chase on a small order. A buyer who finds officer churn, a thin capital base, activity codes far from the goods offered, or a charge flag will find the S$5.50 profile cheap compared with the exposure. Larger commitments graduate to the pre-deal counterparty screen rather than a stack of blind downloads.

1. Copy the UEN from the contract party block, not the logo footer, and validate format and existence.
2. Confirm name, status and entity type, then save the register name exactly as shown for the agreement.
3. Buy one Business Profile for S$5.50 and read officers, shareholders, capital, activities and filing history.
4. Verify GST separately if the quote includes GST, keeping the effective date with the invoice file.
5. Screen struck-off history and filing recency when continuity, warranty or maintenance terms matter.
6. Escalate only on cause: People Profile for repeat names, Extracts for constitution or financials, bureau data for credit.

• Red flag: quoted name and UEN point to different entities, or the UEN is deregistered.
• Red flag: activities describe dormant holding or unrelated retail while the bid is for regulated works.
• Red flag: recent mass officer turnover or a registered office that changes with each invoice.
• Red flag: GST charged without an active GST registration on the invoice date.

Singapore corporate register FAQs

Buyers usually arrive with one question, such as whether a supplier is real, whether GST was charged properly, or whether a director signs for too many companies. The answers below use only the sources cited on this page, so a buyer can retrace each step without relying on a scraped mirror. For deeper method, see how to check legitimacy, background checks and current research pricing.

Freshness matters because the register moves every day. The bulk open file refreshes monthly, while BizFile reflects filings as lodged and paid profiles are point-in-time snapshots. A buyer closing near month end should re-pull the profile rather than reusing a copy from an earlier bid round, especially where officers, addresses or share capital were in flux.

Is the Singapore corporate register free?

Partly. Searching BizFile by entity name or UEN and downloading the data.gov.sg open file with UEN, name, status, type, issue date, street and postal code are free. Naming officers and shareholders, capital, activities, charges and filing history requires the paid Business Profile at S$5.50, with other information products priced at BizFile checkout.

How much is an ACRA Business Profile?

ACRA lists S$5.50 per profile, payable by credit card, debit card or online banking, with delivery within 15 minutes and no refunds for incorrect purchases. Buyers should double-check the UEN before paying, since a similarly named entity is the most common wasted purchase.

Can a buyer download the full list of Singapore companies?

Yes, in bulk open form. The Entities Registered with ACRA dataset holds about 2.1M rows across all time, with the snapshot cited here at 2,124,508 total entities, and is published as CSV under an open data licence with monthly refresh. It is ideal for matching and screening, but it does not include officers, shareholders, financials or charges.

Why do free BizFile people results no longer show NRIC numbers?

After full NRIC numbers appeared in free People Search results from 9 to 13 December 2024, ACRA suspended that search and resumed on 28 December 2024 with no NRIC numbers in search results, masked or otherwise. Full identification detail remains available through paid channels where the law permits, while free search now requires buyers to disambiguate common names with UENs and profiles.

Does the public register show shareholders and financials?

Shareholders and officers appear in the paid Business Profile, not in the free eight-column file. Financial statements and annual returns sit in paid Extracts where filed, with a compliance and financial summary available via the Corporate Compliance and Financial Profile. Buyers should not expect profit or balance sheet figures in the free bulk download.

Where should GST registration be checked?

With IRAS, not ACRA. Use the IRAS GST-registered business search by UEN, business name or GST number and keep the status plus effective date with the invoice. ACRA status never proves GST status, so the two checks run side by side on every taxable purchase.

• Start with UEN validation, then BizFile search method.
• Read what a Business Profile proves before paying S$5.50.
• Pair ACRA with GST verification on every taxable invoice.