TL;DR. Singapore’s official business registry is ACRA Bizfile+, operated by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority. Foreign buyers can search by company name or UEN with no Singaporean account required, paying SGD 5.50–16.50 (~USD 4.10–12.30) per document download. The interface is fully English, the data is current to the day of filing, and a developer API is available for bulk compliance workflows.
What is the official Singapore business registry?
The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) maintains Singapore’s central company registry under the Companies Act (Cap. 50). The public search portal is Bizfile+, accessible at bizfile.gov.sg. Bizfile+ replaced the original Bizfile portal in 2016 and has been progressively expanded to cover companies, sole proprietorships, limited liability partnerships (LLPs), limited partnerships (LPs), and public accounting entities.
ACRA operates under the Ministry of Finance and has statutory authority over company incorporation, filing obligations, and registry data publication. All Singapore-incorporated entities are assigned a Unique Entity Number (UEN) at registration, which serves as the primary identifier across government systems.
The registry holds records dating to the early 1990s for most entity types. Historical filing documents are available as downloadable PDFs for the majority of filings.
What can you search?
Bizfile+ supports searches across several dimensions relevant to compliance buyers:
- Company name (partial match supported)
- UEN (Unique Entity Number): the primary registry identifier
- NRIC or FIN (for sole proprietorships registered under individual identity)
- Director or officer name (limited; full cross-entity director search requires the API)
- Shareholder name (for publicly filed shareholding structures)
Data available per entity profile includes: registered name, UEN, entity type, registered address, date of incorporation, status (live, struck off, in liquidation, wound up), principal activity (SSIC code), paid-up capital, list of officers (directors, company secretary, auditor), and shareholding structure for companies with 20 or fewer shareholders (private companies exempt from full disclosure are noted).
Data freshness is tied to the filing event: directors changes, address updates, and capital alterations appear in Bizfile+ within 1–2 business days of ACRA processing the lodgment.
How much does it cost?
| Item | Cost (SGD) | Cost (USD, approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| Business profile (standard, instant) | SGD 5.50 | ~USD 4.10 |
| Business profile (with financial summary) | SGD 11.00 | ~USD 8.20 |
| Certificate of Incorporation | SGD 16.50 | ~USD 12.30 |
| Director/shareholder extract | SGD 5.50 per document | ~USD 4.10 |
All prices are as of May 2026 per ACRA Bizfile+ pricing page. SGD/USD conversion used: 0.74 (approximate; verify at point of purchase). Payment is accepted by credit card, PayNow, and via the Singpass app for Singaporean residents.
There is no subscription model for ad-hoc public searches. Bulk API access is priced separately under the ACRA developer programme.
Do you need a local account or ID?
No Singaporean identity document or local entity account is required to search Bizfile+ or purchase documents. Foreign buyers can complete a transaction using any international credit card and a standard email address.
For document downloads, ACRA requires an email address to deliver the purchase receipt and PDF link. No Singpass (Singapore’s national digital identity system) is needed for basic searches; Singpass is only required for filing (submission mode) or for accessing certain personal-data-heavy officer details on entities where the individual has consented to disclosure.
Is the website in English?
Yes. Bizfile+ is fully English. All search interfaces, document descriptions, entity status labels, and filing type descriptions are in English. There is no Mandarin, Malay, or Tamil interface, consistent with Singapore’s English-first government digital services policy.
What’s the turnaround time?
Document download is instant once payment clears. There is no manual fulfilment step on standard business profiles and filing extracts. Certificate of Incorporation (COI) documents are pre-generated and available immediately.
For authenticated due-diligence purposes, the PDF from Bizfile+ is the primary source document. No notarisation is required for most compliance contexts unless the receiving party specifies otherwise.
Is there an API?
Yes. ACRA offers a developer API under its Open Data initiative. The API provides structured access to business profiles, officer lists, and historical filing metadata. Authentication is via API key issued after registration. Rate limits and pricing tiers apply; contact ACRA directly for enterprise access terms.
For compliance platforms needing bulk or automated lookups, the API is the correct integration point. Screen scraping Bizfile+ is not recommended and likely violates ACRA’s Terms of Use.
What you legally cannot do
ACRA’s Terms of Use prohibit:
- Reproducing or republishing registry data commercially without ACRA’s written permission
- Bulk automated scraping of the Bizfile+ public interface
- Representing ACRA data as independently verified when it is simply republished
- Using registry data for unsolicited marketing or spam
Compliance buyers fetching data for CDD, UBO verification, or AML monitoring purposes are within permitted use. The signed agency agreement model used by businessdataguide is designed to capture and document the stated purpose for each fetch, consistent with ACRA’s permitted-use framework.
Practical tips for foreign compliance buyers
- UEN is the anchor identifier. Always search by UEN rather than company name if you have it. Company names in Singapore can be changed without UEN change, and English transliterations of Chinese business names vary.
- Exempt private companies (EPCs, those with 20 or fewer shareholders and annual revenue below SGD 5M) are exempt from full annual return disclosure. Their filed accounts may be abbreviated.
- Status field matters. “Live” means the entity is registered and not struck off. “Struck off” means ACRA has removed it from the register, typically for non-filing. An entity struck off can be restored within 6 years.
- Director addresses. ACRA masks individual residential addresses for directors who have opted for address confidentiality. Registered office address remains public.
- Data for entities with Singpass-linked profiles may show more detail if the individual has consented. This affects sole proprietorship records more than company records.
Alternatives if you cannot access Bizfile+ directly
- Concierge service: businessdataguide handles the Singapore ACRA fetch, normalisation, and report delivery for you under a signed agency agreement. Get a sample report or book a call.
- Aggregator search (free, indicative only): OpenCorporates indexes Singapore company filings but lags official data. Useful for a quick name check; not for compliance-grade verification. Read our OpenCorporates comparison.
- ACRA’s API for platform-level integration (see above).
Alternative suppliers
For most compliance lookups, ACRA Bizfile+ is the only source you need. Two additional suppliers are worth knowing:
ACRA Bizfile+ — bizfile.gov.sg The official government registry. Provides incorporation documents, officer lists, and shareholding data direct from the statutory source. Use for any compliance workflow requiring a primary-source filing extract. Cost: SGD 5.50–16.50 per document (~USD 4.10–12.30).
Singapore Commercial Credit Bureau (SCCB) — sccb.sg A commercial credit bureau co-founded by Infocredit D&B (Singapore) and DP Information Network. Provides commercial credit reports, company profile reports, and director/shareholder information derived from multiple trade and credit data sources. Use SCCB when you need credit risk indicators or trade payment behavior on top of the registry filing extract — for example, when onboarding a counterparty as a supplier or trade credit customer. Pricing on request.
ACRA Bizfile+ and SCCB serve different needs: Bizfile+ gives you the authoritative legal filing record; SCCB gives you payment history and credit risk context. A thorough CDD file may include both.
Last verified: May 2026. Source: ACRA Bizfile+ (bizfile.gov.sg) and ACRA published pricing. Verification log: see agents/verify-registry/runs/. For the full global due diligence framework, see our Global Business Due Diligence Guide.