Corporate Service Providers Act 2024 compliance — Complete 2026 guide
Corporate service providers act 2024 compliance became mandatory in Singapore on 9 June 2025, when the Corporate Service Providers Act 2024 and its regulations took effect. Every business that provides corporate secretarial, registered-office, accounting or nominee services in or from Singapore must now register with ACRA, maintain an anti-money-laundering programme and vet the nominee directors it arranges.
Raffles Corporate Services works with a panel of corporate and employment law firms; this article is general information, not legal advice.
What the Corporate Service Providers Act 2024 is
The Corporate Service Providers Act 2024 is Singapore’s standalone licensing-style framework for the firms that incorporate companies, act as filing agents, provide registered offices, supply nominee directors and keep statutory registers. It replaced the lighter filing-agent regime that previously sat inside the ACRA Act, and it brought corporate service providers (CSPs) squarely within Singapore’s anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism-financing perimeter. The Act was passed by Parliament in 2024 and commenced, together with the Corporate Service Providers Regulations 2025, on 9 June 2025.
The policy driver is transparency. Singapore was responding to Financial Action Task Force expectations and to several high-profile money-laundering cases, and the Act closes the gap whereby anyone could offer corporate services without registration or supervision. Section 7 of the Corporate Service Providers Act 2024 establishes that a person who carries on a business of providing corporate services in or from Singapore must be registered with ACRA as a registered CSP.
What corporate service providers act 2024 compliance requires of your firm
Compliance has three pillars: registration, ongoing AML/CFT/PF duties, and conduct standards for the people involved. Registration is entity-level — the firm registers, and each individual who will act as a registered qualified individual (for example, a person who will be appointed as a nominee director by way of business) must also be fit and proper. ACRA assesses honesty, integrity, competence and financial soundness before approving a registration.
For directors and counsel arranging corporate services, the practical question is whether your provider is a registered CSP. If you outsource secretarial work, registered office or nominee arrangements, you should confirm your provider’s ACRA registration before relying on them. You can read more about director-level statutory duties in our Corporate Service Providers Act 2024 Singapore: What Every Company Must Know (2026).
Who must register as a CSP
Registration captures firms that, by way of business: file transactions with ACRA as agents; form companies or other entities; provide a registered office, business or correspondence address; act as, or arrange for another person to act as, a director or secretary; or arrange for a person to act as a nominee shareholder. Accounting firms and law practices that perform these activities are generally caught, though some are supervised under their own professional regimes.
Corporate secretarial and ACRA-compliance work sits at the centre of the regime; our colleagues at Singapore Secretary Services explain the day-to-day mechanics in their guide to Compliance Guide for Singapore F&B Companies: Licences, Tax, Employment & Corporate Filings. If your group also hires foreign staff, the immigration and work-pass interactions are covered in the Singapore’s Tightening Job Market in 2026: What Foreign Professionals Need to Know.
AML/CFT/PF obligations
Registered CSPs must implement risk-based controls to counter money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing. In practice this means written internal policies, customer due diligence (CDD) on every entity and its beneficial owners, ongoing monitoring, screening against sanctions and politically-exposed-person lists, suspicious-transaction reporting, staff training and independent audit of the programme. CSPs must keep CDD and transaction records for at least five years.
These obligations broadly mirror the standards that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) applies to financial institutions, adapted for corporate service work. The supervisory authority for CSPs, however, is ACRA, and you can review the legislation directly on Singapore Statutes Online.
Nominee directors and beneficial-ownership transparency
A connected reform — delivered through the Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act 2024 — tightened transparency around nominee arrangements. Nominee directors and nominee shareholders must be flagged, and information on their nominators must be recorded. A registered CSP may only arrange for an individual to act as a nominee director by way of business if that individual is fit and proper and the CSP has performed due diligence on the nominator. Section 157A(1) of the Companies Act 1967 vests the management of a company in its directors, so a nominee director who signs without understanding the company’s affairs takes on real legal exposure.
Costs, timelines and penalties
Indicative figures for 2026: ACRA charges registration and annual renewal fees for CSPs (commonly in the region of S$200–S$600 depending on category), and most firms budget several thousand Singapore dollars a year for AML software, screening subscriptions and independent audit. The heavier cost is internal — appointing a compliance officer and documenting policies. Allow roughly four to eight weeks to assemble an application, prepare your AML manual and complete fit-and-proper declarations before submitting to ACRA.
The penalties are significant. Breaches of the AML/CFT/PF obligations by a CSP or its senior management may attract fines of up to S$100,000 per breach, and carrying on a corporate-services business without registration is an offence. Officers who fail to discharge their duties can be held personally liable.
Common compliance mistakes
The recurring errors we see are: treating CDD as a one-off at onboarding rather than an ongoing obligation; failing to identify the true beneficial owner behind layered structures; appointing nominee directors without documented nominator due diligence; and retaining records for too short a period. A second frequent gap is governance — naming a compliance officer on paper without giving them authority, budget or board reporting lines.
Related guides
For the corporate-secretarial and ACRA-filing side of compliance, see Compliance Guide for Singapore F&B Companies: Licences, Tax, Employment & Corporate Filings. For director duties and statutory obligations, see our Corporate Service Providers Act 2024 Singapore: What Every Company Must Know (2026). Employers bringing in overseas talent should also review the Singapore’s Tightening Job Market in 2026: What Foreign Professionals Need to Know.
A practical compliance checklist for 2026
For a firm bringing itself within the Corporate Service Providers Act 2024, a working checklist looks like this. Confirm registration status with ACRA and renew on time. Appoint a named compliance officer with board reporting lines and the authority to halt onboarding. Maintain a written AML/CFT/PF policy that is reviewed at least annually and after any material regulatory change. Perform customer due diligence on every entity and its beneficial owners before acting, with enhanced measures for higher-risk clients, and refresh that due diligence periodically rather than only at onboarding. Screen all clients and connected parties against sanctions and politically-exposed-person lists. Keep customer and transaction records for at least five years. Subject the programme to independent review, and document fit-and-proper assessments for every qualified individual and nominee director arranged by way of business.
How the Act changes the client experience
Clients should expect more questions at onboarding — source of funds, structure charts, identification of ultimate beneficial owners and the rationale for any nominee arrangement. This is not bureaucracy for its own sake; it is the mechanism by which Singapore keeps its corporate registry trustworthy and its reputation as a clean financial centre intact. Directors who understand the regime can prepare the right documents in advance, which shortens incorporation and transfer timelines considerably. Where a structure is complex, briefing your corporate service provider early — with a clear ownership chart and identification documents — is the single biggest time-saver.
FAQs
When did the Corporate Service Providers Act 2024 come into force?
The Act and the Corporate Service Providers Regulations 2025 commenced on 9 June 2025. Firms providing corporate services in or from Singapore were expected to register with ACRA from that date.
Do accounting and law firms need to register as CSPs?
If they carry on corporate-services activities such as company formation, filing as agents, providing registered offices or arranging nominee directors by way of business, they are generally caught, although some activities are supervised under separate professional regimes. Confirm your firm’s position against the Act.
What are the penalties for non-compliance?
Breaches of AML/CFT/PF obligations can attract fines of up to S$100,000 per breach, and operating without registration is an offence. Senior management can be held personally accountable.
How long must CSPs keep customer due-diligence records?
At least five years, in line with Singapore’s wider AML record-keeping expectations.
Does the Act change my obligations as a company director?
Your duties under the Companies Act 1967 are unchanged, but the Act makes the providers you rely on accountable and tightens transparency around nominee directors and shareholders.
Need help with this? Call, SMS or WhatsApp +65 8501 7133, or email [email protected]. Raffles Corporate Services works with a panel of corporate and employment law firms; this article is general information, not legal advice.