How to Search ACRA for Free: Singapore Company Registry Data

Singapore's company registry data sits across four authorities, each holding a different layer of the same companies' data. ACRA (the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority) operates the public registry through Bizfile — the digital portal that holds incorporation, directors, registered office, and statutory filings. IRAS (Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore) covers tax registration and GST. MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore) covers financial-services authorisations. SGX (Singapore Exchange) covers listed-company disclosures.

For anyone running KYB, AML, or supplier verification on Singapore counterparties, the landscape changed materially in 2025. The Corporate Service Providers Act 2024 took effect on 9 June 2025. The Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act 2024 took effect on 16 June 2025. ACRA's central Register of Nominee Directors and Register of Nominee Shareholders went live the same week. The 31 December 2025 deadline for existing companies to file nominee data has now passed — bringing Singapore's beneficial-ownership transparency regime into line with FATF standards. For the equivalent guides covering Ireland and China, see how to access Irish company registry data for free and how to access Chinese company registry data for free.

This guide explains what data lives where, how to access each source legitimately, what changed when the CSP Act and CLLPMA Act came into force in June 2025, and where Zephira fits — joining all four sources into a single profile, sourced directly from the Singapore government, with no aggregator middlemen and no SingPass barrier for foreign teams.

First, who actually owns this data?

Before any cost analysis or dataset map makes sense, it helps to know which institution owns which slice of Singapore company data. Four government bodies control the entire registry layer between them.

Most analyses of "Singapore company data" only look at ACRA. That's a mistake — ACRA covers the surface (legal identity, directors, basic compliance), but the substance (is the entity GST-registered, is it a regulated financial institution, are there material disclosures) is split across the other three. A complete profile needs all four sources joined.

Every Singapore company-data dataset, mapped

Twelve distinct datasets exist across the four authorities, each with its own access regime. The split:

Bizfile — what's there, what's free, what's paid

Bizfile is the central public-facing portal for ACRA company data. The current version launched on 9 December 2024, replacing the older BizFile+ system that had been in service since 2016. Bizfile offers four search tabs:

• Entity search — by company name or UEN. Returns name, status, registered address, entity type. Free.
• People search — by officer name. Returns the entities the person is involved with. Free for the basic match list; paid for the detailed People Profile.
• Industry search — by SSIC code. Returns live businesses by primary or secondary business activity.
• Reserved names search — for incorporation due-diligence checks.

The free entity search returns enough to confirm legal existence and current status. To go deeper — paid-up capital, full shareholder list with allocations, charges, share-capital history — you need to buy the Business Profile at S$5.50 per company. For a complete officer-history extract, you need the People Profile at S$11. Certified copies of certificates and good-standing extracts cost S$50.

For foreign users without a SingPass, ACRA allows guest accounts to access Bizfile and complete paid purchases via credit card. Foreign teams routinely report this works smoothly — Singapore's portal does not have the access barriers that affect mainland Chinese sources.

The UEN — Singapore's unified entity identifier

Every Singapore-registered entity has a Unique Entity Number (UEN) — a 9- or 10-character alphanumeric identifier issued by ACRA at incorporation. The UEN is the single search input for any Singapore KYB workflow:

• Local companies (incorporated through ACRA): 9 digits + 1 check letter (e.g. 200512345A)
• Local LLPs: T followed by 9 digits + 1 letter (e.g. T12LL1234A)
• Local sole proprietorships and partnerships: 9-digit business registration number
• Foreign companies registered in Singapore: F followed by 9 digits + 1 letter (e.g. F12345678A)
• Other entity types (clubs, associations, government agencies): UEN with a 1-letter prefix indicating issuing agency

The UEN is the same number used by IRAS for tax purposes — there is no separate tax-identification number for an entity. It also appears on every Bizfile Business Profile, on the GST registration record, and on substantial-shareholder filings on SGXNET.

RORC, ROND, RONS — Singapore's beneficial-ownership architecture

Singapore operates three separate registers for beneficial ownership and nominee transparency. Each was substantially reformed under the CSP Act and CLLPMA Act in June 2025.

RORC — Register of Registrable Controllers

The RORC has existed since 31 March 2017 and holds beneficial-ownership information for every Singapore company, foreign company, and LLP. Reformed under the CLLPMA Act effective 16 June 2025:

• Immediate maintenance: the previous 30-day grace period after incorporation has been removed. New entities must maintain the RORC immediately at registration.
• Annual verification: entities must check with each registrable controller annually to confirm their particulars remain accurate.
• Update timeline: changes to controller particulars must be reflected within 7 calendar days (extended from 2 business days).
• Penalties: non-compliance penalties increased from S$5,000 to S$25,000 per breach.
• Access: the register is held by ACRA but not public — accessible only to law enforcement and AML-obligated entities for due-diligence purposes.

Who counts as a registrable controller

ROND and RONS — Nominee director and shareholder registers

From 16 June 2025, ACRA operates Central Registers of Nominee Directors and Nominee Shareholders. Companies must:

• Maintain a private ROND/RONS at their registered office or registered CSP's office
• Submit nominee information centrally to ACRA — first submission deadline was 31 December 2025 for entities incorporated before 16 June 2025
• File any update within 2 business days of change
• For new entities incorporated on or after 16 June 2025, file nominee information at incorporation

The key transparency change: the fact of a nominee arrangement is now publicly visible on a company's Bizfile Business Profile. The identity of the nominator remains restricted to law-enforcement access. This is a deliberate compromise — it warns counterparties that a nominee structure exists (so they can apply enhanced due diligence) without exposing the nominator publicly.

Singapore entity types — what each one means for KYB

The Bizfile entity-type field is the single fastest filter for understanding what compliance regime applies to a counterparty.

Where Zephira sources Singapore data from — directly

The single most important question to ask any provider of Singapore company data is who is your source. Zephira goes direct: every Singapore record is sourced from the official government registry that owns it, with the source attribution visible on every profile.

Every record on the platform carries a Data Provenance panel naming the specific government source the record was pulled from, with the timestamp of the last refresh. The panel is visible on the free profile view and in the API response (data_provenance field). Beneficial-ownership data from the RORC is not available via Zephira to non-authorised parties — that register is closed by Singapore law to law enforcement only.

ACRA's own API Marketplace — and where it falls short for foreign teams

ACRA launched its API Marketplace on 26 May 2024, replacing the legacy API Mall. The platform exposes three primary APIs for programmatic access to Bizfile data:

• EIQ — Entity Information Query. Returns officer details and basic company information — the same fields visible in the free Bizfile entity search.
• FIQ — Financial Information Query. Returns financial highlights for entities that have filed financial statements in XBRL format.
• TVQ — trustBar Verification Query. Verifies the authenticity of Business Profiles purchased from Bizfile, useful for downstream document-fraud checks.

A new Business Profile Data API and additional transactional APIs are scheduled for progressive release through 2025–2026. Subscription packages apply, with pricing varying by API and call volume.

Foreign firms can apply for API Marketplace access, but the onboarding involves additional verification steps and is structured around Singapore-resident filing agents. For teams that need multi-jurisdiction registry coverage in a single API, that bilateral arrangement is operationally awkward — every country becomes its own integration with its own auth flow, contract, and data schema.

Zephira's role is to consolidate this. The Zephira REST API exposes Singapore registry data on the same data model as 100+ other jurisdictions — UEN search, English-normalised entity types, Data Provenance attribution back to ACRA, and bulk delivery via S3 or SFTP on Business and Enterprise tiers. For ACRA-specific transactions (filing annual returns, registering new companies, paying statutory fees), the official Marketplace remains the authoritative path; for entity verification, KYB onboarding, and ongoing monitoring across global counterparties, a unified provider eliminates the per-jurisdiction integration cost.

Recent and upcoming legislation

Frequently asked questions