CCFP stands for Corporate Compliance and Financial Profile. It is an ACRA information product bought through Bizfile that takes a Singapore company’s business profile, adds its statutory compliance record, and adds up to three years of financial data with ratios and the audit opinion on top.
Raffles Corporate Services works with a panel of experienced Singapore law firms who offer cost-effective and efficient legal service and advice. This article is general information only and is not legal advice.
In other words, it is the closest thing to a credit assessment you can buy from the registry itself. Not a score, and not an opinion on creditworthiness, but the raw material for one, assembled from the company’s own filings.
Most people who need it have never heard of it. They buy a business profile, discover it says nothing about whether the company files on time or makes money, and stop there. Here is what the CCFP contains and how to read it without over-reading it.
The six sections, and what each one is for
1. Business Profile
The registered facts: company name and incorporation date, business activities, registered address, capital details including issued and paid-up share capital, and the particulars of officers, shareholders and the audit firm.
This is the same material as a standalone Business Profile. If you already bought one, you are re-buying it as part of the bundle, which is usually still the right call because the remaining five sections are where the value sits.
2. Compliance Profile
Whether the company has met its statutory obligations under the Companies Act 1967. Specifically: whether annual general meetings were held on time, whether up-to-date financial statements were laid at those meetings, and whether annual returns were filed on time.
This section is the reason to buy a CCFP rather than a business profile. A company that has been consistently late with its annual returns is telling you something about how it is run, and it is telling you at no analytical effort on your part.
3. Financial Profile
Up to three years of comparative highlights from the balance sheet, profit and loss, and cash flow.
The word doing the work is comparative. One year of figures tells you very little. Three years tells you direction, and direction is usually the whole point of the exercise.
4. Financial figures and ratios
ACRA computes a standard set of ratios across liquidity, profitability, operating efficiency and solvency, so you are not doing the arithmetic. The table below sets out what is calculated and how.
| Ratio or figure | How it is calculated | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) | Profit or loss from continuing operations net of tax, plus income tax expense, plus finance costs | Profit from core operations, stripped of financing and tax effects |
| Current ratio (times) | Current assets divided by current liabilities | Ability to meet short-term obligations. A ratio of 1.00 means one dollar of current assets for every dollar of current liabilities |
| Operating profit margin (%) | EBIT divided by revenue, times 100 | Operating performance as a percentage of revenue |
| Net profit margin (%) | Profit or loss net of tax divided by revenue, times 100 | What is left of each sales dollar after everything |
| Return on assets (%) | Net profit plus tax plus finance costs, divided by total assets, times 100 | How hard the asset base is working |
| Return on equity (%) | Profit or loss net of tax divided by total equity, times 100 | Return on the owners’ capital |
| Total liabilities to equity (times) | Total liabilities divided by total equity | Reliance on debt. Higher means more dependent on borrowing |
| Interest cover (times) | EBIT divided by finance costs | Capacity to service interest on borrowings |
| Total assets turnover (times) | Revenue divided by total assets | How efficiently assets generate revenue |
Read these as a set, not individually. A high return on equity alongside a high liabilities-to-equity ratio is leverage, not performance. A healthy current ratio alongside a falling interest cover is a company that can pay this month’s bills and is losing the ability to pay this year’s interest.
5. Audit opinion
The auditor’s opinion on the filed financial statements, in the categories set by the Singapore Standards on Auditing. This is the section most non-accountants misread, so it is worth being precise.
| Opinion | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Unqualified | The statements give a true and fair view. This is the normal, good outcome. |
| Emphasis of matter | The statements are reliable, and the auditor is drawing your attention to something disclosed in the notes. Read the notes. It does not modify the opinion. |
| Qualified | Mostly reliable, except for a specific identified issue. A disagreement or scope limitation exists but is not pervasive. |
| Disclaimer of opinion | The auditor could not get enough evidence to form any opinion at all. Treat with real caution. |
| Adverse | The statements are materially misstated. The most serious outcome there is. |
The gap between “emphasis of matter” and “qualified” trips people up constantly. An emphasis of matter is not a criticism of the accounts. A qualification is. A disclaimer or an adverse opinion should stop a credit decision until you understand why.
6. Directors’ opinion
Whether the directors state that the accounts as drawn up are accurate. Present in every set of statutory financial statements, and worth checking against the audit opinion for inconsistency.
Who should be buying a CCFP
- Anyone extending credit terms. Before you agree to 60 days on a substantial order.
- Anyone taking on a new supplier for something critical. Supplier insolvency is a supply chain problem before it is a legal one.
- Landlords assessing a corporate tenant.
- Anyone doing pre-transaction diligence where financial statements have not been handed over voluntarily.
- Directors checking their own company as a counterparty sees it, which is a genuinely useful exercise and one almost nobody does.
If you only need to confirm who the officers are, buy the cheaper Business Profile instead. If you are new to the platform entirely, start with what Bizfile actually is. Our guide on where to buy Singapore company information sets out the full product range and which question each one answers.
What the CCFP will not tell you, and why that matters
Nothing, if the company does not file financial statements. This is the big limitation. Many Singapore private companies are exempt from filing financial statements with their annual return. Where nothing has been filed, the financial sections of the CCFP will be thin or empty, and the absence of data is not evidence of health. It is just absence.
Nothing current. Financial statements are filed after the financial year ends, so even a well-run company’s most recent filed figures may be many months old. A CCFP bought today can show you a company as it was more than a year ago.
Nothing about litigation, enforcement or reputation. The CCFP draws on ACRA’s register. Court proceedings, regulatory action by other agencies and adverse media sit outside it entirely.
Nothing about group position. A Singapore subsidiary’s filed accounts do not show you a parent guarantee, an intercompany funding arrangement that can be withdrawn, or the group’s actual financial condition.
Nothing about who really controls the company. Registered shareholders are not necessarily beneficial owners. Where nominee arrangements exist, the register of registrable controllers is a separate exercise, and the tougher penalties ACRA now applies to the nominee and controller registers are a reminder of how seriously that is taken.
The practical conclusion: use the CCFP as the structured starting point of a counterparty assessment, not as the assessment. Combine it with Bizfile’s free search functions for the basics and with your own commercial judgment for everything the register cannot see.
Frequently asked questions
What does CCFP stand for?
Corporate Compliance and Financial Profile. It is an ACRA information product purchased through Bizfile that combines a company’s business profile, its statutory compliance record on annual general meetings and annual returns, and up to three years of financial data with ratios and the audit opinion.
Is a CCFP the same as a credit report?
No. A credit report from a commercial bureau includes a score, payment behaviour data and often adverse media. A CCFP is registry data: filed financial figures, computed ratios, the audit opinion and the compliance record. It is a source for a credit assessment, not the assessment itself.
Can I buy a CCFP on any Singapore company?
You can buy it on companies whose information ACRA holds, but its usefulness depends on what that company has filed. Where a company is exempt from filing financial statements and has filed none, the financial sections will have little or nothing in them.
What should worry me in a CCFP?
A qualified opinion, a disclaimer or an adverse opinion. Persistently late annual returns. A current ratio below 1.00. An interest cover ratio trending downwards. Any of these justifies asking questions before extending credit or signing a long-term commitment.
How old is the financial data in a CCFP?
It is as current as the company’s most recent filing. Financial statements are filed after the financial year ends, so the latest figures shown can easily be a year or more old. Check the period covered before you rely on it.
Can I buy a CCFP on my own company?
Yes, and it is worth doing. It shows you exactly what a bank, a landlord or a prospective customer sees when they check you, including any compliance lapses you had assumed nobody would notice.
Being the company that reads well
There is a version of this article written from the other side. Your compliance record is visible to anyone willing to spend a small sum on Bizfile, and late annual returns show up in a document designed to be read by people deciding whether to trust you.
Raffles Corporate Services keeps clients’ filings inside their deadlines so that the compliance section of their CCFP is unremarkable, and we pull CCFPs on counterparties as part of onboarding and transaction work. If you would like to see what yours currently says, or you have one in front of you and are not sure how to read it, that is a short conversation.
You can reach us through Raffles Corporate Services, or read more on Singapore corporate secretarial practice at Singapore Secretary Services.
The Editorial Team, Raffles Corporate Services
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