Before you appoint a director, accept a personal guarantee, lend to an individual or bring in a business partner, run a Ministry of Law Insolvency Search on that person. For a small fee per search it shows whether the person is an undischarged bankrupt, is on the Debt Repayment Scheme, or was discharged from bankruptcy within the past five years. Pair it with an ACRA People Profile to see the person’s appointments and any disqualification. Ask for the person’s agreement before using their NRIC or passport number, keep the results with your onboarding file, and repeat the search before each major decision.
When should a company search an individual, not just a company?
Most counterparty checks look at the company. But many business risks sit with a person: the director you are about to appoint, the shareholder who will sign a personal guarantee, or the founder you are lending to. A company can look healthy on paper while the person behind it cannot legally manage it, or has no assets to back a guarantee.
| Situation | Why an individual search matters | Searches to run |
|---|---|---|
| Appointing a new director | An undischarged bankrupt generally cannot act as a director without permission | Insolvency Search, People Profile |
| Taking a personal guarantee from a customer’s director | A guarantee from a bankrupt or a person on the Debt Repayment Scheme may be worth little | Insolvency Search, People Profile, company checks |
| Lending to, or investing alongside, an individual | Bankruptcy affects the person’s ability to deal with property and take on credit | Insolvency Search |
| Admitting a new shareholder who will be active in management | Their status affects whether they can sit on the board | Insolvency Search, People Profile |
| Hiring a senior finance or management officer | Taking part in management is restricted for undischarged bankrupts | Insolvency Search, with a clear pre-employment notice |
For checks on the company itself, such as winding-up applications and court cases, see our guide to checking whether a Singapore company is being wound up or has been sued. This article covers the person.
What does the Ministry of Law Insolvency Search show?
The Ministry of Law’s Insolvency and Public Trustee’s Office runs an online Insolvency Search for individuals. According to the Ministry’s published answers, the search tells you whether the person:
- is currently under the Debt Repayment Scheme;
- is an undischarged bankrupt; or
- was discharged from bankruptcy within the past five years.
The Ministry states the fee as S$6 per search. You need the person’s NRIC or passport number, and results can be sent to an email address you provide. Two limits matter when you read a result. Records of bankruptcies that were annulled are not available, and nor are records of bankruptcies discharged five or more years ago. A clear result therefore tells you about the present and the recent past, not the person’s whole history.
A separate paid product, Individual Insolvency Administration Information, gives more detail about a bankruptcy estate, but the Ministry describes it as a creditor’s search for those who have filed a proof of debt. Most businesses doing due diligence need only the standard Insolvency Search.
What does the ACRA People Profile add?
An ACRA People Profile, bought on Bizfile, lists the businesses registered to a person and their current and past appointments and shareholdings. ACRA’s guidance states the fee as S$33. In a parliamentary reply on 4 November 2026, the Second Minister for Finance said that a director’s disqualification status is reflected in the register of directors and in the publicly accessible Business Profile and People Profile.
The People Profile helps you to:
- confirm the roles the person has claimed, and spot roles they did not mention;
- see a pattern of companies that were struck off or wound up; and
- check whether the person is shown as disqualified.
Our article on risk assessment using ACRA records explains how to read a People Profile alongside a company’s Business Profile.
Why can’t you rely on the ACRA register alone?
Because bankruptcy does not automatically remove a person from the register. In the same 4 November 2026 reply, the Minister said that as at 31 August 2026, about 1,700 of the 11,642 undischarged bankrupts were listed in ACRA’s records as directors of live companies. Bankruptcy orders are sent from the Ministry of Law to ACRA through an automated interface, but existing directorships do not end automatically. The bankrupt director must tell the company, which may then withdraw or replace them.
Section 148 of the Companies Act 1967 makes it an offence for an undischarged bankrupt to act as a director or take part in the management of a company without permission from the court or the Official Assignee. The same reply said that only 14 bankrupts had been granted such permission by the Official Assignee, and all of those permissions had lapsed before 31 August 2026. A name on a Business Profile therefore shows who is recorded, not who may lawfully act. Our guide to what happens when a director is made bankrupt covers the bankruptcy process itself, and our article on director disqualification covers the other grounds.
How do you run the searches, step by step?
- Explain why you need the check. Tell the person what you will search, why and how you will keep the result. For a director appointment or guarantee, put this in the onboarding form.
- Collect the identifiers. Get the full name exactly as on the identity document and the NRIC or passport number. Check them against the document itself, not a typed list.
- Run the Insolvency Search on the Ministry of Law’s e-service, paying the stated fee, and save the result.
- Buy the People Profile on Bizfile using the exact name, and confirm the identity number shown matches.
- Run company checks if the person is tied to a company you are dealing with: Business Profile, corporate insolvency search and court searches.
- Record your conclusion. Note the date, who ran the searches, what they showed, and your decision.
How should you read the result?
| Result | What it means | Sensible next step |
|---|---|---|
| Undischarged bankrupt | The person generally cannot act as a director or take part in management without permission | Do not appoint; do not rely on a personal guarantee without advice |
| Under the Debt Repayment Scheme | The person has debts being repaid under a supervised scheme | Treat any guarantee or personal credit as high risk and ask questions |
| Discharged within five years | The person is no longer bankrupt | Not a legal bar in itself; consider it in your credit and governance decision |
| No record | No current or recent Singapore bankruptcy or scheme record was found under that identifier | Confirm the identifier was correct; it says nothing about other countries |
For a foreign individual, the Singapore search covers Singapore proceedings only. If the person has lived or traded mainly overseas, consider the equivalent official checks in that country as well.
What about personal data protection?
The Personal Data Protection Commission’s advisory guidelines on NRIC numbers say organisations should generally collect NRIC numbers only where the law requires it, or where it is necessary to verify identity to a high degree of fidelity. The guidelines give financial and property-related transactions as examples where accurate identification matters. A bankruptcy check before taking a guarantee or appointing a director will often fit that description, but you should be ready to explain why the number is needed.
In practice: tell the person the purpose, collect only what you need, store the result securely with limited access, and do not use the search for unrelated purposes. Our article on NRIC use in company KYC and onboarding covers identity handling more broadly.
What should your due diligence file contain?
- Signed onboarding form or email agreement explaining the purpose of the checks
- Copy of the identity document used to confirm the name and number
- Insolvency Search result, with date
- People Profile, with date
- Business Profile and company search results, where a company is involved
- A short note of the decision and anyone who approved it
Example: a personal guarantee for trade credit
Example: A Singapore wholesaler is asked for 60-day credit terms by a new customer. It agrees on condition that the customer’s sole director signs a personal guarantee. Before signing, the wholesaler’s finance manager explains the checks to the director, who agrees and provides a passport copy.
The company checks are clean. The Insolvency Search, however, shows the director was discharged from bankruptcy three years ago, and the People Profile shows two earlier companies that were struck off. Nothing prevents the director from acting, but the wholesaler decides the guarantee alone is not enough. It offers 30-day terms with a lower credit limit, files the results with the signed guarantee and diarises a fresh search before any increase in the limit.
Frequently asked questions
Can I search someone without their NRIC or passport number?
The Insolvency Search needs the person’s identification number. You can buy a People Profile by name, but common names can return several people, so confirm the identity before drawing conclusions.
How often should we repeat the search?
The result is a snapshot. Repeat it before each major decision, such as increasing credit, calling on a guarantee or reappointing a director, and at your periodic KYC reviews for higher-risk relationships.
Our existing director has just become bankrupt. What now?
The directorship does not end automatically, but the person should not act as a director or manage the company without permission. The company should receive the director’s notice and update ACRA. Make sure the company still has at least one director ordinarily resident in Singapore.
Does a clean search mean the person is creditworthy?
No. It only shows there is no current or recent Singapore bankruptcy or scheme record. It says nothing about debts, lawsuits or overseas proceedings. Combine it with other checks and your own judgement.
Can our corporate secretary run these checks?
Yes. A corporate secretary can run them as part of onboarding a director or shareholder. A registered corporate service provider must carry out its own customer due diligence anyway, as explained in our article on why your corporate secretary asks for KYC documents.
Need help checking a director or guarantor?
If you are appointing a director, taking a personal guarantee or admitting a new shareholder, contact the Raffles Corporate Services team at [email protected] or on WhatsApp at +65 8501 7133. We can run the ACRA and insolvency searches, review the results with you, prepare the onboarding file and handle the director appointment or withdrawal filings. Where a search reveals a dispute or a problem with a guarantee, we can refer you to a firm on our panel of Singapore law firms.
Willie Tan, Raffles Corporate Services