One-day SEC registration of foreign firms now possible 

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has streamlined its one-day registration process to include companies with foreign ownership, hoping to attract more international businesses to set up shop in the country.

The corporate watchdog on Wednesday said corporations with foreign equity wanting to incorporate in the Philippines may now register via the SEC’s One Day Submission and Electronic Registration of Companies (OneSEC) Zuper Easy Registration Online system.

“Streamlining the company registration process for foreign entities is a crucial component of our thrust to improve the ease of doing business in the country,” SEC chair Francis Lim said in a statement.

“By expanding the coverage of OneSEC to foreign entities, we want to send a strong signal to the international business community that the Philippines is open for business, and hopefully encourage them to set up shop here,” he added.

OneSEC was launched in 2021 as a “pass-through” system meant to simplify the corporate registration process. Those qualified to use the system are one-person corporations and regular corporations with two to 15 incorporators, board of directors and stockholders.

At present, eligible companies may register via OneSEC within a minute and 14 seconds, from the beginning of the application process until the receipt of a digital certificate of incorporation, according to the regulator.

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This is as the SEC seeks to encourage more entrepreneurs to eventually tap the capital market to raise funds and grow their business.

As of end-June, the commission registered 145 foreign corporations in the country. Overall, registration via OneSEC ballooned by nearly fourfold in July alone to 2,938 companies.

Apart from streamlining the registration process, the SEC also recently granted micro, small and medium enterprises a 20-percent discount in registration fees to push more small businesses to register. They may also avail of as much as a 50-percent discount in the filing fee if they intend to tap the capital market.